Percy Jackson and the Curse of Echidna
by MStormwriter
Summary: Percy Jackson thought his school year would be normal. That is, until Thalia showed up in homeroom. Full review inside. Book 1 of 4. T because of mild swearing. Finished. Thanks to everyone who read. There is now a "teaser trailer" up for book 2. A remake is out now, and you should read that instead. "RE: Percy Jackson and the Curse of Echidna" is its name.
1. Chapter 1

**Hi there. How are you? I'm good thanks. So, recently, I've been getting some story favorites and followers on this story, which is great, except that a better remake is currently being published and receiving weekly updates. If you like this story, imagine how much better the remake will be? About a thousand times better. The story is called RE: Percy Jackson and the Curse of Echidna. You can search it, or you can just click on my author name up there and scroll down to my stories and find it there. Alright now, you all be good, and I'll see you over at RE.**

Percy Jackson and the Curse of Echidna

Chapter 1

The end of the world started when Thalia showed up in homeroom. Up until that point, my day had been pretty normal. I woke up at five forty-five, showered, changed, ate a bowl of cereal, and rode to school with Paul. I went to the office and got my locker assignment and schedule. I found my locker and taped a picture of Annabeth to the door, then set off for homeroom. I had finally deciphered where that would be: Paul's classroom. I had Paul as my homeroom teacher.

Once I got there I took a random seat and waited for the bell to ring. At precisely seven o' clock the homeroom bell rang. Paul started about the normal, start-of-the-school-year business, introducing himself, handing out different forms, so on and so forth.

Finally, he got to roll call. "Abigail Bridges?"

"Here," said girl responded.

He did this for a bit and I lost interest being ADHD and all. That was, until he called a name I recognized. "Thalia Grace?"

I snapped to attention. Thalia?_ There must be some mistake, _I thought. _I must've misheard him, that's all. Thalia can't be here._

Again he called, "Thalia Grace?"

Again I tried to convince myself that I had misheard him, and that was it was all in my head. Unfortunately, what happened next, proved my misheard theory wrong. The door to the classroom burst open, and in walked a girl with spiky black hair, electric blue eyes, black jeans, and a death to Barbie t-shirt. She wore a silver bracelet, but her silver tiara, marking her as Artemis's lieutenant, was gone. Thalia Grace really was here at Goode.

Somehow, I knew that the reason she was here could not be anything good (Ha, ha. Good, Goode. HA!). Thalia was here for a reason, and I wasn't sure I wanted to know what it was. It would probably just get me into a mess. I had just defeated Kronos a few weeks ago, couldn't a guy get a break?

"Sorry I'm late," Thalia said. "I'm Thalia, and I'm here."

"It's alright," Paul said, marking her off. "Um... take that seat next to Percy, he's the one back there in the back."

"Thank you," Thalia said. She nodded to Paul and went to the back of the room where I was sitting. I must have had a really stupid, surprised expression on my face, because when Thalia sat down she said, "You have no idea how much of a seaweed brain you look right now."

"Thalia," I said, "what are you doing here?"

"Well I-"

But she was interrupted by the intercom. A girl's voice came over the speakers. "Hello and good morning. It is Wednesday, September eighth, a wonderful day to start out the school year! I am Helen Kazam, your new school morning announcer!" Helen sounded just a bit too happy for a teenager at seven fifteen, but I didn't say anything. "Today's lunch is chicken casserole. It sounds like a delicious lunch!" I didn't agree. Last year on chicken casserole day, I could have sworn I saw mine move. "When teachers are done with role call, please bring your students to the auditorium. It's time to meet the new principal. Yay!" _Woo-hoo, _I thought sarcastically. _That's something to get excited about_. "Have a fantabulous day!"

Thalia raised her eyebrows. "Did she just say 'fantabulous'?"

I snorted. "I think so."

Paul finished roll call and we all headed towards the auditorium. It was a big, dimly lit room. There were three empty seats and a podium with a microphone attached to it on the stage up front. The seats were like movie theater ones, except without the cup holders. _Dang, I really like cup holders._ Thalia and I sat next to each other in the back, where we could talk without being overheard.

"So," I said. "Did you come to recruit more hunters or what?"

"No," Thalia said. "Yesterday Camp Half-Blood received a list of undiscovered demigods and their parents. There were so many, Grover nearly fainted. He called upon us, the hunters, to help. I accepted, and went where I was most needed. Here."

"Here?" I asked. "Why?"

"Because," Thalia said, "about fifty of the demigods on the list attend Goode. We have to get them out of here and safely to Camp Half-Blood. They'll be safe there."

I remembered some words that Paul had said during my freshman orientation, _We get a lot of kids here with ADHD and dyslexia_. I had thought that it would be something much harder, but this, I wasn't too worried about. "Sounds easy enough."

How wrong I was. Two of the three seats on the stage were now occupied. In one sat the superintendent. In another the vice principal. The third was empty. A girl stepped up onto the stage, going up to the microphone. She must have been new, because I didn't recognize her from last year. She had dark brown hair and was a little on the tall side. She wore blue jeans and a gray t-shirt with a picture of a magician pulling a rabbit out of a hat. Grover would have had a fit. Her eyes were, well I shouldn't have been able to tell their color from the back, but I could. They were yellow, and I could have sworn they were glowing. That made me nervous. Glowing eyes was not a normal thing. Most of the time, glowing eyes were a signal that the person was a monster or a god, or something else...

I exchanged looks with Thalia, and could tell that she was thinking the same thing. We turned our attention back to the stage. The girl spoke into the microphone. "Hello everyone, it's me, Helen! How excited are you for the new school year?" There were some mumbles. "I can't hear you! Louder!"

Suddenly I felt the urge to yell at the top of my lungs how excited I was, even though I wasn't that excited, but I held myself back. Everyone else though, did shout at the top of their lungs about how excited they were. Only Thalia and I refrained.

Now I knew something was up. Thalia knew too. Whoever that was had just manipulated the minds of the entire audience. I pulled out my deadly pen, Riptide, and tapped my knee. Thalia fiddled with her mace container, which I knew expanded into a spear. We were ready for a fight.

After the yelling and cheering died down, Helen continued. "That's awesome! I know that I'm looking forward to this school year too! Now, let me introduce our new principal, Mrs. E!"

Again I felt the urge to cheer, but I stopped myself. Again, everyone, but Thalia and I, cheered like maniacs. Then, onto the stage, stepped someone I hoped I would never see again. Out onto the stage stepped a fat woman in a dress and overlarge hat. With her, was a dog, a "chihuahua". I found myself looking at one of the first monsters I had ever faced, along with my first major defeat. Echidna was the new principal.

She approached the microphone and Helen stepped away. They said a few words, then Helen went and sat in the empty chair. Echidna turned towards the students. She caught my eye, and smiled darkly. Then she looked away and addressed the entire auditorium. "Hello, everyone. As Helen so well introduced me, I am Mrs. E."

"What's the E stand for?" some guy in the audience yelled.

"That's not important dear," she sounded sweet and kind, but there was also a hint of danger underneath the voice. The guy shut up. "As I was saying," Echidna continued. "I am Mrs. E, your new principal. I'm sure we'll all be the best of friends. I only ask one thing of you. That you _all_ do as I say. Understood?" Nods throughout the audience. The dangerous tone was still in her voice, and I think that even through the Mist, these mortals could sense that she was not to be trifled with. "Now, you'll notice some new staff members throughout the building over the course of the year. Don't be worried, none of your favorite teachers will be fired. I am simply hiring more people. You'll also notice a larger amount of student teachers here. Again, don't worry. It is all normal."

"I bet their all going to be monsters," I muttered to Thalia.

She looked at me, confused. "What do you mean?"

I rolled my eyes. "_Now_ who's the seaweed brain. That's Echidna. She probably found out about all the demigods here and is trying to kill them all."

"But-" Thalia said. "But – she, well, she works for Zeus. Why would she be here trying to take out these students?"

"I don't know," I muttered. "But I don't think she's working for your dad anymore. When I met her, she asked me why I continued to be a puppet of the gods. That doesn't sound like someone who works for the gods."

"Dad only spared her as a challenge to future heroes," Thalia muttered. "_If_ she has turned against Zeus, then why is she still alive?"

I shrugged. "Maybe Zeus doesn't know yet. I don't know."

Echidna cleared her throat. "The two of you in the back, will come to my office after school today." Everyone turned towards us. I gritted my teeth. _I'll be there,_ I thought_, Just in time to cut off that head of yours!_ "Now," Echidna continued. "I was saying that I hope for test score to improve dramatically over the course of this school year. Goode will be the best school in the state. That is all. Report to your classes."

Everyone got up, muttering to each other about the new principal. Thalia and I waited until the crowds rushing for the doors had died down, before we headed off. "So," I said, trying to keep to normal conversation, "what do you have for first period?"

Thalia pulled out her schedule and squinted. "Um, I think that it says... pysicaly etuation? Damn dyslexia. Um... physical education?"

"That sounds more, uh, likely than pysicaly etuation," I said, smirking.

Thalia glared at me. "Like you could've read it any better!"

I chuckled. "Thalia, you've got to get used to being in school, among mortals now. You've got to figure out what's the most likely thing that the schedule says, based on what you see through your dyslexia."

"That's actually kind of smart, seaweed brain." Thalia sounded surprised.

"I _am_ smart. I just ooze smartness, didn't you notice?"

Thalia snorted at my sarcasm. "Well what have you got then?"

"Uh," I said. I pulled out my schedule. "Um... I think it says art."

"You think? You were the one who just gave me advice on trying to decipher _my_ schedule, and you can't do it for your own?"

I decided to change the subject. "What do you think Echidna wants?"

Thalia's expression turned serious. "I don't know, but I think we'll have to show up, don't you?"

I nodded. "Just be ready to kick some ass when we get there."

Thalia smiled. "I'm _always_ ready to kick some ass."

I smiled too. "See you later."

"See you," Thalia said, as she turned towards the gym.

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. I went to all of my classes, not paying attention to anything of course. I ate a disgusting cafeteria lunch. I lost when we played dodge ball in gym. And I signed up for the school's swim team. _What an unfair advantage for the other team,_ I thought, laughing manically inside my head. Finally the two o' clock dismissal bell rang. I started towards the principal's office, when I heard someone call from behind me, "Percy!"

It was Paul. I stopped and waited for him. When he caught up, he said, "I'm very disappointed that you got in trouble on your first day of school. What were you doing, who were you talking to?"

I sighed. "Look, Paul. I can't explain right now. I'll tell you and mom at home."

Paul nodded, as if that satisfied him. He really was, a very cool guy. "Alright Percy, as soon as we get home. I'll wait for you out in the car."

"Thanks," I said. "See you in a bit." Paul walked off. I had wanted to explain to him right there that the new principal was a monster, but it didn't seem like the time.

Then a harsh voice came over the intercom. Echidna had dropped the sweet voice act apparently. "Percy Jackson, to the principal's office! Now!"

I sighed again, then set off down the hall. When I got to the main office, the secretary pointed me towards the door in the back. I walked over to it, then knocked. "Come in," Echidna called, resuming her sweet voice act.

Once I had opened the door and closed it behind me, I looked at the office. The room was dimly lit. Thalia sat in a chair facing the desk. Sitting behind the desk, was fat ol' Echidna herself. On her desk were lots of pictures, all of monsters. Her children I realized. Behind her hung a picture of Typhon. I remembered my first good look at him. He had been terrifying. He still was terrifying in picture form.

"Sit _down_," Echidna said harshly, once again dropping the sweet voice.

I sat in the chair next to Thalia. She was glaring angrily at Echidna. "What do you want Echidna? Why are you here? My father wouldn't have sent you here!"

"No indeed," Echidna snarled. "I do not serve the Olympians anymore Miss Grace." Thalia gritted her teeth at the use of her last name. "I serve a new master. He promised me and my children free reign, to do whatever we want, whenever we want, to any heroes we wish, as long as we obey him. Zeus never gave me such freedom. I am here, because my master wants me here. And I obey, because of the promise of freedom."

"That, and you probably want revenge on the gods for taking down your husband," I said.

Echidna snarled. "Listen, boy! Your father is the reason for that! If I could, I would tear him apart! But that job belongs to another."

"Who?" I asked.

"None of your business," she snapped.

"Who's your master anyway?" Thalia asked.

"None of you business!" Echidna snapped again.

"Why are we here?" Thalia asked. "Why aren't you attacking us, too scared?"

Echidna smiled. "Well, the time is not right, is it? No, it is not the time for me to slay either of you. As for your other question, you are here, because I just wanted to remind you, that Chimera is here with me." I response, the chihuahua stepped forward and started barking angrily. "If you put one toe out of line, and I can prove it was you, I'll 'expel' you, meaning I'll feed you to Chimera. Understood?" We nodded, gulping. Even with my invulnerability, I didn't want to know what the inside of that thing was like. "Very well," Echidna said. "Leave, now!"

Thalia and I jumped up, and left the room. Once we were out of earshot of the office, I said, "Looks like this is going to be more of a challenge then we thought."

Thalia nodded grimly. "We'll have to be careful and secretive about safely removing the demigods. I don't want to know what the inside of the Chimera looks like. But we can't give up. We have to succeed!"

I nodded. "But I bet that Echidna is going to be watching us closely now. And I bet that whoever her master is, sent her here because of the high concentration of half-bloods."

"Yes, I think so too," Thalia said, just as we stepped out of the building. "Looks like we'll have quite a few monsters to slay."

"Just like old times," I murmured.

Thalia laughed. "Just like old times."

**AN: And thus ends the first chapter. It's a bit shorter than future chapters will be. By the way, I am still looking for another person to take over my other PJO story, A Son of Zeus. If you are interested, look it up, read it, and leave a review telling me you want the story. **

**Alright, please review.**

**-MStormwriter**


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: Well, I am certainly pleased with the response I've gotten so far. Alright, so here is chapter 2**

Percy Jackson and the Curse of Echidna

Chapter 2

The door to our apartment closed behind me as I stepped inside. Mom was back in the bedroom, writing her novel, but Paul was going to bring her out into the living room so that I could explain. I left my backpack by the door, and pulled off my sneakers, preferring to just walk around in my socks. I sat on the sofa and waited. I had to decide what to say. I already knew that it would have to be the truth, but how to phrase it would be the challenge. See, I didn't want my mom too worried about me. She'd been worried, almost too much, by the events of just a couple of weeks ago. And now I was in danger again, along with many other kids.

Paul and my mom stepped out into the living room. Paul sat in the chair across from the couch, and mom sat at the other end of the couch. Mom spoke first. "Percy, Paul tells me that you got in trouble at school today. What happened?" Her voice wasn't angry, just disappointed, which was somehow even worse.

I sighed. "Paul, Mom, what I'm about to tell you is hard, and hard to believe. But I swear on the river Styx that I'm not making this up." Thunder rumbled in the distance. "Mom, remember, back when I was twelve, when I told you of my adventure to try and save you and retrieve the master bolt? Well remember when I mentioned to you what happened at the arch?"

"Yes," she said slowly.

"What happened at the arch?" Paul asked.

"I was in St. Louis," I explained. "And I went to the arch. Well Echidna and her son, the Chimera, were there. They blew a hole in the side of the arch, and I plummeted into the river."

"I remember hearing something about an explosion in the arch," Paul said. "It's been a while, at least..."

"Four summers ago," I said. "Yeah, that would be right." 

"But why are you reminding me of Echidna?" my mom wondered.

I took a deep breath. "Because... Our principal is Echidna. Trust me, I know it's hard to believe, but it's true. She has a new master now, and was assigned to Goode to go after the great many half-bloods that go there. Thalia said there were about fifty."

"The new girl?" Paul asked.

"New to you," I said. "But I've known Thalia for a long time. She was there at the battle a couple of weeks ago. She and I have to safely remove the half-bloods from Goode, without alerting Echidna, or we'll be fed to the Chimera. I know you're both skeptical, but I swore on the Styx. I can't very well break that vow without some horrible consequence."

My mom and Paul looked at each other and nodded. "Okay Percy, we believe you," Mom said. "But why didn't you and Thalia just take out Echidna today?"

Paul cleared his throat. "Sally, think about it. Wouldn't be awkward if the principal disappeared and Percy was the last to see her?" I hadn't thought about that, but Paul was right. "Plus, he mentioned the Chimera. I bet they didn't want to have to fight it." I nodded. That was the _real_ reason we hadn't attacked Echidna today. Chimera was right there, and even with my invincibility I didn't want to have to fight it without proper armor.

We sat there in silence. Paul and Mom went into the kitchen to get dinner ready. I sighed. I needed to tell Annabeth about this, she'd know what Thalia and I should do. I picked up the wireless phone set and walked back into my bedroom. I dialed the number I had had memorized for years; Annabeth's cell phone number.

After a couple of rings, she picked up. "Hello?"

"Hey Annabeth, it's me."

"Me who?" Annabeth joked.

"Not funny."

She laughed. I really wished we could be face to face right now, but her boarding school only let them out on weekends and it was a Monday. "So what's up Seaweed Brain? Miss me so much you couldn't bear not calling me?"

I sighed. "If it was only that, all my problems would be solved." Then I quickly added, "But I do miss you though!" I could practically see Annabeth rolling her eyes. "Anyway, Annabeth, I've got to tell you some bad news. You remember my fight with Echidna?" I basically told her everthing that had happened today. It was all news to her. Apparently she didn't know Thalia would be coming either. And when I told her about the weird girl, Helen, she muttered something I couldn't really make out very well. "So yeah," I concluded. "That just about sums it up."

"Hmm," Annabeth said. "Interesting. The girl, Helen. From your description she sounds like a girl who was in the Hermes cabin way back when. She left camp shortly before you arrived. If I remember right, she was our age. I don't know what she's up to, but it can't be good. As for Echidna's boss, I really don't know Percy. Whoever they are, they must be a god or a titan or something."

"That's what I thought. But who could it be?"

"I don't know, that's what is unsettling for me. I _hate_ not knowing."

"I noticed," I murmured.

She pretended she didn't hear me. "I just can't think of a likely god or titan to fill the role. All the gods that were on Kronos's side got pardoned. The other titans went back into hiding. I can't think of any titans that would do it."

"Right. Well thanks Annabeth. See you Saturday?"

"What do you think Seaweed Brain?"

I smiled. "See you then."

"Okay... and Percy?"

"What?"

Annabeth hesitated. Usually she was great with her words, but right now she seemed to be struggling. "Never mind. I'll see you Saturday."

"What is it?"

"Bye," Annabeth said, and she hung up. That was weird. I hoped nothing was wrong. I contemplated calling her back, but if it had been something serious, she would've told me.

"Percy!" my mom called. "Dinner's ready!"

I sighed and put down the phone. What had Annabeth wanted to talk to me about?

I arrived at school the next morning, feeling worse than I had last night. I stumbled to my locker and dropped off a few things, then went off to homeroom, planning to go to sleep as soon as I got in there. Thalia had other plans.

"Seaweed Brain!"

"What?" I groaned. Thalia had just rudely awakened me from my morning nap.

"Wake up! We have stuff we need to go over." I forced myself alert. Thalia was sitting at the desk next to mine, holding a piece of paper in her hand. "I have the list of names of demigods in the school. We can't just pull them out randomly, or Echidna might get suspicious. We'll have to wait till one of them is attacked to get them safely to Camp Half-Blood."

"Isn't that kind of dangerous for them?" I asked.

Thalia grunted. "Well of course it is, but it's also the only way for us to get them out of here without having to face Echidna and the Chimera. We probably will have to in the end anyway, but never mind that. Now, I was also thinking-"

But Thalia couldn't tell me what she was thinking, because just then, Helen came on with the announcements. "Hello! It's Tuesday! YAY!" Everyone cheered. I got that feeling again, like I wanted to cheer too. Who was this girl? "Alright, a few announcements. Today's lunch is hot dogs and macaroni and cheese. Mmmm, sounds good. All tryouts for sports are today, afterschool. Alright, that's all. Have a terrific Tuesday!"

Thalia glared at the speaker in the ceiling. "Who is she?"

"I don't know," I said. "Annabeth said that someone who matches Helen's description used to go to camp before I arrived. She was in the Hermes cabin, but I doubt that's because she was Hermes's daughter. She was probably unclaimed. I don't know who she is daughter of, but she _is_ a demigod."

Thalia thought about that. "So, an unclaimed daughter of someone was crammed in the Hermes cabin, and left shortly before you arrived. She's alive still, somehow... I know! She was probably part of Kronos's demigod army. That's how she survived for those years. Now though... hmm... Well, she's working for Echidna now-"

"Or Echidna is working for her," I interrupted.

"-and Echidna is working for some one mysterious. We don't know for sure who it is. But It's probably a Titan sympathizer. But who?"

I shrugged. "None of the minor gods. They've all returned back to Olympus, they're with the gods now."

"Yeah, I remember, part of your gift. All the minor gods getting respect and full pardons."

"Right," I said. "So it can't be any of them."

"We don't know that for sure, there could still be a really angry minor god out there, we just don't know of one that might betray the gods at this point."

"Anyway, what about one of the other titans, you know, the ones that got away."

"Oceanus has been found, and sent to a prison underneath the ice cap. Prometheus has also been found, and returned to his previous punishment. Hyperion has been removed from the tree, and sent to Tartarus."

"What about that ram dude? What's his name? Krios! What about him?"

"Krios? He hasn't been found yet."

"It's him," I said. I was sure of it.

"Percy, it can't be Krios. He isn't a good fighter or leader. He couldn't come up with a plan like this."

"I don't know..." I wasn't so sure that was true. I bet that Krios could be a pretty good leader and fighter if he wanted to. He was, after all, immortal.

Then, homeroom ended. Thalia turned to me as we got up to leave. "Take the list Percy. If you find any of these kids, tell me immediately. Meet me afterschool outside the locker rooms. We've got more to talk about, but I've got tryouts to go to."

"Really? What sport?"

Thalia grinned wickedly. "Boxing."

I snorted. Yep, that's Thalia all right.

So I pretty much aced everything in the try out for the swim team. I went to the locker room and changed, quickly. There were some guys on the boxing team talking about how a girl had joined, and kicked all of their butts. I laughed inwardly. Thalia certainly was capable.

After I had changed, I walked outside the locker room and waited for Thalia. What did she want to talk to me about? I sat down with my back against the wall. I started daydreaming, and I dozed off.

"Well, well," a voice said. I started. I rubbed my eyes. I thought that it would be Thalia, but it wasn't. It was Helen. I gulped. Today she wore jeans and a black shirt with _Got Magic?_ writen on it in white letters. "If it isn't Perseus Jackson."

"What do you want?" I snapped.

"Me? I want to know why Mrs. E didn't kill you yesterday. So inconsiderate of her. Always leaving me to clean up her messes."

"What are you talking about?" I was beginning to be awake enough to realize that this was soon to become a fight. "Who's your godly parent anyway?"

Helen smirked. "Why, Hecate of course, goddess of magic."

"What do you want?" I asked again. "I mean, besides killing me."

"Revenge," she told me. "I hate all the gods, even my mother. Kronos should have won! But you, you interfered! If it hadn't been for you Kronos would have won! But that doesn't matter. My new master will do what Kronos couldn't. Use forces that Kronos wouldn't have dared to!"

"And who is your new master?" I asked.

"Why haven't you guessed already? It's Krios."

"I knew it!" I exclaimed. "I win this one Thalia!"

"Shut it," came another voice. Thalia had showed up. I jumped up.

"Well, well, it can be Krios can it?" I said sarcastically.

Thalia was about to respond when a sword swung not two inches away from my chest. Helen had chosen to start the battle. Thalia's mace canister, expanded into her spear, and she activated Aegis. Helen flinched momentarily, but recovered quickly, and attack Thalia. I pulled out Riptide and uncapped it. I swiped at Helen's unprotected back. Just before the blade made contact, there was a puff of smoke, and Helen disappeared. She appeared behind me and jabbed; I had to block quickly to stay alive, because she would've caught the small of my back. She smiled, so I figured that maybe she'd found out my weak point just now. Not good. Not good, at all.

Thalia jumped in with a swipe at Helen's legs. Helen jumped, unlocking our blades. I sliced. Again she teleported. Thalia and I stood back to back, turning around. We didn't know where she could possibly appear. And then she reappeared. But not just her, a dozen replicas as well. They surrounded us. I didn't know which was the real Helen. They all laughed at our foolishness.

Thalia did something next that I didn't expect. She deactivated her shield. "Percy, on my command, we will spin around counterclockwise!"

"What?" I didn't understand what she was thinking. And which way was counterclockwise anyway?

The Helens charged. I heard Thalia's shield spring to life as she yelled, "Now!"

I did what she had told me. The Helens flinched, and all but one, the real one, disappeared. Now I understood what Thalia had been doing. By deactivating, then reactivating her shield she had caught Helen with the full blast again. And by spinning she had made sure we got the real one. We both charged towards Helen. She had recovered from the terror of Aegis. She thrust out her hand, and we flew backwards and smashed into the wall. She snapped her fingers, and fire sprung up around us. She laughed. "Now my fire will consume you!"

My retort: "You wish!"

But honestly, I didn't know what to do. Me being Poseidon's son would protect me for a while, but not forever. And what about Thalia. Then I saw that we were standing in front of the door to the girls' locker room. I concentrated on the water that was surely in there, the sinks, the toilets, the showers. I felt a tug in my gut. The loomed closer. Thalia and I backed up. And then... there was an explosion of water from the girls' locker room. The fire, Helen, Thalia, and everything else were doused with water. I was filled with energy. I swung at Helen. I felt her trying to disappear (the water covering her had given me that information. I couldn't let that happen. I concentrated, and used the water to block her teleportation. She was caught off guard, and was merely able to only deflect my blade. I cut a gash across her arm.

_ I intercepted with Riptide, but his strike was so powerful, my blade could only deflect it. The edge of the scythe shaved off my shirtsleeve and grazed my arm._

Woah. I was turning into Kronos! Where did that thought come from? For that matter, where did that flashback come from? Helen attacked. Her blade glanced off my stomach, and I stumbled backwards. Helen smiled. "Well well Jackson, an admirable first test. You pass. But there will be many more to come. Mark my words Jackson, one day you will fail."

There was a huge puff of smoke, and she disappeared. Thalia and I exchanged nervous glances. "That was-"

"Not good," Thalia finished. "We'd better get out of here before we're caught and blamed for the water damage. I nodded in agreement. We left the school in a hurry.

**AN: And that is the second chapter, all setting things up for the rest of the story. What will happen next? Well, you'll find out. The flashback is quoted from _The Last Olympian_ by Rick Riordan from page 22. Also, I found out that someone else, whose story I like, had a previously published character named Helen who was also a daughter of Hecate. That's kind of embarrassing, but it was unintentional. That be all. Review.**


	3. Bonnie and Clyde

**AN: Alright the next chapters are all going to be named, not numbered. Each is the name of a demigod or multiple demigods that Thalia and Percy will save in the chapter. The actual Chapter 3 will occur after a few named chapters. Confusing I know, but I'm trying something new. Also updates will probably be about once or twice a month from now on. But school is keeping me busy. I'll also try to update on the 12th, (the day _The Lost Hero)_ comes out as a kind of celebration type thing. But no promises. I also have a cross country meet that day and I might be too tired to update. Anyway, here we go.**

**Warning: Some swearing in this chapter!**

Percy Jackson and the Curse of Echidna

Bonnie and Clyde

I showed up to school the next day with the water damage in the locker room area mysteriously fixed. I don't know how they fixed it overnight, but it didn't really matter. Thalia and I hadn't gotten in trouble yet, so that was a good sign. In homeroom that morning, Thalia and I talked about the specific names of the demigods and their parentage. We agreed to keep a look out for any of them. At the slightest hint of a monster attack, we would have to get them to Camp Half-Blood.

The nest few days were relatively calm. That is, Helen didn't try to kill me again. Thalia pummeled me pretty badly once for insulting archery, but other than that, nothing real eventful happened. That was until Friday. I was just finishing fourth period when I heard screams in the hall, and yells of "Fight! Fight! Fight!"

I rushed out. There was a ring of people surrounding a freshman and a cyclops. That was kind of depressing to me. The cyclops was obviously trying to beat up the kid. He looked about Tyson's size, and I had to force myself to lurch forward.

The mist must've been pretty strong because no one noticed the fact that the attacker only had one eye. The kid did though. "Help me! He's not a normal bully! He's only got one eye! Help!"

The other students just laughed, but I froze. I just couldn't beat up this cyclops. Then the cyclops lurched forward and headbutted the kid. The kid fell to the ground. I forced myself to remember that this wasn't Tyson. I broke into the circle.

"Hey stop picking on this kid!" I yelled as confidently as I could.

The cyclops laughed in response. "What you gonna do 'bout it, filthy mortal!"

So he thought I was just a normal person. Well it was time to ruin that hope for him. I pulled out riptide and uncapped it. The cyclops lurched in fear at the sight of the blade. "That would be demigod."

Some moron in the back yelled, "Hey no baseball bats!"

I rolled my eyes. Then another guy yelled, "It's a lacrosse stick dumb ass!"

"Baseball bat!"

"Lacrosse stick!"

I heard a fist make contact, and the attention of the other students shifted to the two of them fighting over whether I was holding a lacrosse stick or a baseball bat. Unfortunately, I had lost my focus. "Watch out!" yelled the kid.

I turned back towards the cyclops just in time to get a fist to the face. I heard the bones in the monster's hand snap. I stumbled, but was okay. The cyclops, however, was howling in pain. I went to jab with riptide, but I hesitated, thinking of Tyson. The hesitation was all the invitation he needed. The cyclops headbutted me, and I was knocked to the floor, my sword falling out of my grip. I reached for it, but the cyclops kicked me out of the way. I rolled and landed with my face on the floor. The cyclops put his foot down on my back, and I howled in pain. He was just trying to hold me down, but his foot was precariously close to my weak point.

Then, all of a sudden I heard a grunt, and the pain was gone. The foot was gone, replaced by a pile of dust. I stood tenderly. Standing there was the freshman kid, holding my sword in a thrusting position. I was able to get a good look at him for the first time. He was blond and was dressed in nice designer brand clothes. He had on a pair of awesome sunglasses, and stood a little shorter than me.

"Can I have my sword back?" I asked as kindly as I could.

"I just killed it," he said, staring strait ahead. "It just dissolved. It's dead."

"Not forever," I said.

"What?"

"Never mind, I'll explain later. I've got to get you out of here, now, before the others quit fighting about whether this sword is a baseball bat or a lacrosse stick. What's your name, kid?"

"I'm Clyde." I started walking, and Clyde followed. "Why couldn't they see he was a monster? Why couldn't they tell you had a sword? Where are we going? What is going on?"

"Well Clyde, the answer to your first two questions is because of something called the mist. The answer to the third is first we are going to find Thalia, then we're going to Camp Half-Blood. And finally, to make a long story short, the Greek myths are true. The gods are alive, and here in the United States. You are the son of one of the gods. In fact," I pulled the sheet of names and their parentage out of my bag, "you are a son of... Apollo. The monsters probably work for Echidna, the principal here. We've gotta get you out before she knows that the cyclops failed to kill you."

"What? None of that makes sense! What is going on?"

"I just told you. But Chiron can explain better when we get to camp." All the people were in class or almost to class by now, and the fight was far behind us, so there wasn't much noise.

"But who is Chiron?"

"Look Clyde, let's just get out of here, then we can talk more."

He sighed. "Fine."

I racked my brain trying to remember what class Thalia had now, when i heard quiet sobbing from down the hall. Clyde and I glanced at each other, then I sprinted towropes the noise, Clyde right behind me. We rounded a corner and saw a girl hugging her knees to her chest, crying, with a familiar cheerleader standing over her. Kelli.

_Damn, why an Empousa?_ Kelli was whispering threats in the girl's ear.

"Well, well," I said. "If it isn't Kelli. I thought Annabeth and I had killed you? You regenerated in Tartarus awfully fast."

She turned towards me and snarled, but her expression changed at the sight of Clyde. She adopted a sweet, flirting face, and Clyde got a dreamy look. "Why do you hang out with this loser?" she asked. "You could be doing something better now, like kissing me."

Clyde's expression didn't change. "Snap out of it!" I yelled. "She's a monster!"

Kelli got up close and moved in to kiss him, but really just getting ready to suck his blood. I reached for riptide, then I realized that it was still in Clyde's hand. He had never given it back to me.

"Listen to him Clyde!" the girl said, standing up. She had brown hair and was exceptionally beautiful. I was willing to bet she was a daughter of Aphrodite. An idea snapped into my head. "You, push Kelli out of the way, or get into Clyde's line of sight! Then concentrate on your beauty as hard as you can!"

"What?"

"Just do it!" I yelled.

"Fine!" she yelled. She walked over to where Clyde could see her.

Kelli purred, "Pay her no attention, sweetie. Just look at me."

The girl was concentrating hard by the look on her face. And then, the most miraculous thing happened. She suddenly became even more beautiful than before, more beautiful than Kelli was. Clyde's expression changed. He was no backing away from Kelli. _It worked! Wait till Annabeth hears how I came up with such a brilliant plan. No more Seaweed Brain, just genius._

"Focus on me!" Kelli snapped.

"No me!" the girl shouted.

Clyde looked back and forth confused. Kelli snarled. "Forget it!"

Then she charged form. One leg metal, the other a donkey's. She grew fangs and her hair became fire. She lunged at Clyde. He raised riptide instinctively, and Kelli ran strait into the blade, disintegrating.

The girl ran over. Her looks were becoming less beautiful, though she was still pretty. I hadn't even known that children of Aphrodite could do that for sure. But I had been in the presence of Aphrodite, and she could do that, so why not her kids. The girl spoke to Clyde, "What were you thinking!"

"Hi Bonnie," he said, stunned after the killing of his second monster.

I snorted. "Bonnie and Clyde."

"Yes?" they both said.

I chuckled. How perfect. Like the old gangsters. "Nothing. How do you two know each other?"

"We're best friends, been in the same school since kindergarten," Clyde said.

I nodded. "Well two Half-Bloods in one day. Come on let's find Thalia."

"What's going on?" Bonnie asked.

As we walked Clyde explained what little he knew, and what had happened to him. Bonnie explained what happened to her. Kelli was apparently threatening her friends if she didn't turn herself over to the principal. Bonnie didn't understand what was going on, so naturally she had become upset. Meanwhile, I became more desperate to find Thalia. I had almost given up, when I had an idea. I fished in my pocket for a drachma. After I found one, I ran to the nearest water fountain.

"Bonnie hold the button down," I said. "Clyde, tilt my sword until the light from the window makes a rainbow with the water." Both set about their task. "Keep tilting," I said to Clyde. "Keep going. Stop! Right there!"

I threw the drachma into the tiny rainbow and said, "Oh, goddess, accept my offering. Thalia Grace, somewhere in this building."

A tiny image appeared. From what little I could see i was staring up at Thalia from her desk or something. She was facing the front of the classroom. "Thalia," I whispered.

She glanced down, and did a double take. "Percy? What are you doing on my notebook?"

"I'm on your notebook. Hmm. Listen I found two demigods being attacked. Meet me out front in five minutes. We've got to get them to camp."

She nodded. "I'll be there in two. Do you have a car?"

"Shit! No I don't."

"It's okay I've got one. Meet me in the parking lot."

Then Clyde accidentally shifted the sword, and the rainbow, and the image, disappeared. But it didn't matter. I knew what to do now.

"Come on let's go," I said, and the three of us ran to the front of the school.

We emerged outside in three minutes. Thalia was waiting for us. "These two them?"

"Yep," I said. "Bonnie and Clyde, meet Thalia. Clyde is a son of Apollo, and I think Bonnie is a daughter of Aphrodite, though I haven't checked the sheet yet."

Thalia snorted. "Bonnie and Clyde, as in the gangsters?"

The two of them blushed and Thalia and I chuckled. I pulled out the list. "Yep, daughter of Aphrodite. So Thalia, how do you have a car? You're fifteen."

She raised her eyebrows. "Technically, I'm old enough, i just stopped aging at fifteen. Plus, Grover gave me the car, just in case. Now come on."

The ride to camp was pretty quiet. Neither Bonnie or Clyde spoke the entire time, and Thalia just listened to the radio: punk rock. I guess it wasn't quiet, just not much talking. Anyway, we pulled up to the bottom of Half-Blood hill a while later. All four of us got out.

"Alright, let's get them across the-" I started, but was interrupted by a very familiar bellow. I closed my eyes. "Again? Really? Why doesn't old Beefhead stop trying." I turned, and sure enough, lumbering towards us, was my old friend, the Minotaur.

"Get them across," I told Thalia. "I'll be over in a second as soon as I mash up Beefhead again. Oh, Clyde, I need my sword back. Now!"

He finally handed it over. I turned to face the Minotaur. "See you guys on the other side."

They all nodded, then went for the hill. Beefhead had put on more weight, but was wearing more than whitie tighties this time, but not his full armor either. He was dressed somewhere in between. He probably didn't see me, but I'm sure he smelled me. And boy did he look angry.

"Hey Beefhead! Ready to lose again so soon? Didn't I beat you just a few weeks ago?"

He then charged, which caught me off guard. I had expected some sort of angry grunt, but no, he just charged. It didn't give me enough time to raise riptide, so it was knocked clean off into the distance. It would reappear in my pocket eventually, but not yet. What was up with me today? I was off my game. I got knocked back by the charge, but he was holding on to me, carrying me along for the ride. I planted my feet, and grabbed his horns. Slowly but surely I brought him to a standstill, neither of us able to push the other any farther.

We struggled to gain the upper hand on each other, but what really ended it was the sudden arrow sprouting from Beefhead's chest. He dissolved. I dusted off my hands.

"Three monsters in one day," I murmured. "Not too bad."

"You didn't kill any of them," Clyde said. He was walking down the hill, bow in hand. He had apparently shot the arrow. Whose bow had he used? Then I saw that the bow was silver. It was Thalia's bow. She actually let him use her bow. Last time I had tried to touch it she had broken my fingers. "I killed all three!" Clyde said. "Some kind of rescue."

I scoffed. "Oh please without me you wouldn't be here. Now come on, let's get into camp."

**AN: And that is the end of the first named chapter. At some point, after a few more named chapters, I'll go a couple of numbered chapters again, then back to the named ones and so on until the end.** **Hopefully I'll post the next chapter on the twelfth but no promises. Please review.**

**MStormwriter**


	4. Butch

**AN: So yeah, it didn't happen on the twelfth. Sorry. The good news is that I have read _The Lost Hero_ and boy was it good. So yeah, here I am now. On with the story. The character featured in this chapter is a character introduced in the new book. This chapter is in celebration of the new release.**

**Warning!: May contain minor spoilers from _The Lost Hero_.**

Percy Jackson and the Curse of Echidna

Butch

I walked inside the school the following Monday dripping wet. The rain outside was awful. Funny how I could get wet in the rain but not in most circumstances. Must've had something to do with the fact that Zeus probably was controlling the storm. Why did he want to torture me? Thalia on the other hand was perfectly dry.

"It was like the storm just parted around me," she said with a crazy smirk on her face. "Weird huh?"

"Thalia," I said, "shut up."

She snorted and walked off to her locker. I went to mine as well. When I opened it I stared for a moment. Annabeth's picture was hanging there. We hadn't been able to hang out the past weekend due to her work on Olympus. I sighed. _Well nothing I can do about it,_ I thought. _It's not like I can just visit Olympus unannounced. That would just be stupid._

I stood there for a while, then I heard the bell ring. Time for homeroom. Thalia and I sat in our usual spots and joked around a bit. Then we heard a huge crack of thunder, and I almost fell out of my seat. "Your dad seems awfully angry today," I observed.

Thalia glanced around. "Well yeah. I told him about Echidna. He's not in such a great mood. But he can't directly interfere either because it is our problem."

I nodded. It must suck being a god, never able to take a direct role in anything. "Well next time you talk to him, tell him that we'll kick Echidna strait back to Tartarus."

Thalia nodded. "I'll tell him tonight."

That confused me. "Tonight? You'll see him tonight?"

"Yeah, didn't I tell you? I'm staying at Olympus in Artemis's temple. I saw Annabeth over the weekend by the way. She told me to tell you that she's sorry she didn't get to see you."

A pang of jealousy went through me. _Great Thalia gets to hang out with her but not me_. I sighed. "Yeah me too."

We sat in silence the rest of homeroom.

Later, around one, it was still pouring, and I was bored in class. I pulled out the list of demigods and read it again. I came across one that was familiar. Butch. He was a big bald kid with huge biceps. He was pretty nice usually, though he did seem to have a twisted sense of humor. Apparently he shoved pencils in the noses of sleeping kids. I heard that his record was fifteen. An impressive record, but I'd shoved nineteen up my own nose before. Long story.

Next to his name, was his parent's name. He was a son of Iris. That was kind of funny. A tough , manly kid like him, the son of the rainbow goddess. Kind of funny actually. But I wouldn't say it to his face. He'd probably punch me. And even with my invulnerability, I didn't want to know what that felt like.

Then a new thought occurred to me. Why had I suddenly wanted to look at his name? Maybe it was a message from the gods?

"That it is cos," said a confident voice. I turned and found myself facing Apollo. His sandy hair was messy, and he wore ray bands. "It just so happens to be me who sent the message."

"Why?"

"_Because I am cool._

_You saved my son on Friday_

_This is my 'thank you'"_

I winced. "Still enjoying haiku I see."

Apollo smiled and I was almost blinded. "Yep they're great! But I wanted to thank you for saving my son, Clyde. So I decided to use my gift of prophecy to cryptically tell you who you would need to save next. Cool, eh?"

My brow furrowed. "When do I have to save Butch?"

Apollo smiled and winked. "Can't give away too much. It would take away all the fun."

Sunlight shined through a break in the clouds, through the window, and into my eyes, blinding me. When my vision returned, Apollo was gone.

_Great, now I have to keep an eye out for Butch._ But actually, I wasn't too worried. Butch was strong, he could handle a monster or two, until I could get to him.

I saw Butch that afternoon actually. I was in the locker room changing after swim practice, when I heard the foot ball team enter. I heard Butch talking and laughing. I peeked out of the row of lockers I was in. Sure enough, there he was, at the head of the team. They had just finished practice too it seemed. By I noticed something wrong too. There were a couple of guys in the group that I didn't recognize. That reminded me all too much of what had happened in seventh grade. I decided that I'd keep ready.

I changed slowly so that eventually all that was left were Butch, the two kids who I thought were laistrygonians, and myself.

I decided to try to trick the giants into luring out their real nature. I slung my backpack over my shoulder and walked out of the locker room. I then put my ear up against the door and listened intently.

The three of them were talking, though the two suspected monsters had very limited grammar. I was about to give up and go, thinking it was a false alarm, when I heard Butch say, "Hey are you guys getting taller?"

I heard the two chuckle. "That right," one said. "Now we eat you."

I'd heard enough. I uncapped riptide and charged in. They had Butch pinned against the wall, struggling. "Hey!" I yelled.

They dropped Butch, and turned towards the new voice: me. "You demigod."

"Yes 'I demigod'. Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon. Perhaps you have heard of me?" They looked at each other confused, then shook their heads in unison. "No? Well let me introduce myself!"

I swung Riptide and took out the smaller of the two. The other one leaped away as I swung toward him, and picked up an entire row of lockers. He was about to throw them at me, when Butch tackled him behind the knees. The monster buckled and fell, dropping the lockers. I surged forward, just as Butch was tossed over my head. He crashed into the ground with a sickening thud. "Ow," I heard him say.

I turned to check on him. Bad move. The giant backhanded me on the back of my head, and I went flying as well, crashing into a wall. The monster lumbered towards me. I spun around and caught him by surprise, slicing the monster in half.

He yelped as he disintegrated. I smiled, satisfied with a job well done. I then went over to Butch. "You okay man?"

He coughed. "Yeah I think so. You're Percy right? What were those things?"

I sighed. "I'll explain on the way, right now we have to get you out of here."

Echidna sat in her office, unhappy. There was a knock on the door. "Come in!" she snapped.

In stepped Helen, wearing a _Got Magic? _T-shirt. "You wanted to see me ma'am?"

"Yes dear," Echidna answered. "Why have you not found any way of convincing the school board that Jackson did all the damage. And deserves to be... punished."

Helen sighed. "I've told you ma'am, I need some solid evidence."

"Charmspeak them!" Echidna snapped back.

"I've told you this too: Charmspeak is a rare Aphrodite power, and few who aren't her children can master it. I'm only a novice. I can't trick demigods or gods, or even adult mortals. Only the brains of mortal humans, and demigods who don't know who they are, are weak enough for my level of Charmspeak skill to work."

"Why do I keep you around?"

"Two reasons. One: Master Krios told you too."

"Bah, he doesn't have a physical form anymore, thanks to the destruction of Mount Orthys."

"He is regaining his form."

"Slowly."

"Quickly. Everyday shooting stars fall, and a little more of him is restored. All he needs are two things. One of which we are achieving here. Percy Jackson. The other, our counterparts are working on."

"Humph."

"The second reason you keep me around, is because without me, your plan will fail. You have now way of taking away Jackson's invulnerability, whereas, I do. And you know it."

"You have made no progress with your potion," Echidna noticed.

"Well I'm missing one essential ingredient, the specific location of his weak point. It is somewhere on his back I know, but where is the problem. After that, it's easy. You'll be able to carry out your curse on him."

Echidna calmed a bit. "Fine. But I expect some progress, and soon."

"As you wish," Helen answered. She bowed and backed out of the room.

Echidna was pleased again. So many things were about to improve.

**AN: Alright, another chapter draws to a close. I'll try to do a Halloween special as well, so stay tuned.**

**MStormwriter**


	5. Ben and Josiah

**AN: Well I got a rather large and quick response from the last chapter, and I am pleased. I did get one review saying that Percy disappears a few weeks after this story begins, due to the events of TLH. I would like to say that, originally I saw this problem as well, but when I looked at the story more closely, it says something along the lines of it had been about a year after Kronos was defeated, or at least that's how I read it. A year is plenty of time for my Quadrilogy to occur. And I have changed a few things to keep in line with the canon.**

**Anyhow, on with the story.**

Percy Jackson and the Curse of Echidna

Ben and Josiah

The next day I told Thalia what had happened with Butch and Apollo. She listened to what I had to say, then nodded. "That makes sense, though why Apollo was being so helpful in thanks I don't know. Most of the time that doesn't happen with gods."

I shrugged. "Apollo likes me, what can I say?" Thalia rolled her eyes. "So what did your dad say last night when you talked to him."

"Not much," Thalia admitted. "He did say he has news on Krios. He has lost his physical form, but appears to be regaining it."

"Krios lost his physical form? I thought he just fled from Othrys when it crumbled?"

She hesitated. "That's the other thing. Father seemed like he was hiding something about what exactly happened there, but I don't think that it just crumbled when you defeated Kronos."

"Well then what happened?"

"I don't know. There weren't any demigods attacking it were there?"

I snorted. "That's a stupid question. Of course not, we were all defending Olympus."

"Well whatever happened caused Krios to lose his physical form, but not his followers. He's pulling a last ditch effort it appears. This is just part of it, I think. He has a grander scheme than just trying to pick off demigods."

"I agree. But still, I wonder how Krios lost his physical form..."

Geometry class. My least favorite. I had never really been a fan of math. And what made it even worse was the fact that a freshman, who was a grade ahead in math and science, sat next to me and always showed me up. His name was Ben Falter. He had a twin brother, Josiah. Josiah was advanced as well, but so much cooler than Ben was. Ben was a nerd, but Josiah was cool, if a freshman _can_ be cool.

I had gym with Josiah, and he made all of us laugh. But I couldn't have Josiah in the class I really wanted him in, I had his dorky twin.

The teacher had yet to come in, and the class was being loud. All except Ben, who was being perfectly still and calm, waiting patiently for the teacher. The only thing he and his brother had in common was their looks. They both had very curly, blond hair and gray eyes. Both were about average in height, and built like cross country runners. Ben though apparently was, according to Josiah, "To busy with his studies to play a sport." That's another thing that they had different. Josiah was on the cross country and track teams, but Ben wasn't.

Finally the door opened, and in walked the teacher. A substitute actually. I gulped because I recognized her. And no, it wasn't Miss Dodds. It was worse. A woman dressed in a veil walked in.

"Hello," she said with a middle eastern accent. "I am Miss Em. But you may all call me Auntie Em. Oh and hello again Mr. Jackson, so nice to see you again."

I slammed my head down on my desk. This could not be happening. A few guys snickered. They probably thought I was embarrassed, but that wasn't it. Medusa was in the classroom, and things were about to get ugly quick.

"Now before we begin, I would like to get a picture of you all as a class. My first class as a substitute. But first I must take off this headdress."

I looked up. Medusa was reaching up towards her headdress alright. She was just beginning to remove it. I yelled, "Close your eyes!" Only Ben listened to me. Luckily he must've sensed danger too. I shut my own eyes. No one else did. I heard the solidification of the students into statues.

Medusa cursed. "The two I was aiming for were the only ones to close their eyes!"

"What is going on?" yelled Ben in distress.

"I'll explain later," I called back blindly. "Whatever you do, don't open your eyes!"

"Go ahead and open them child of Athena, there is nothing to fear."

"He's a demigod?" I reached into my pocket and pulled out the list. I took a quick peak. "Holy Poseidon he is. A son of Athena. That's a _big_ surprise," I added sarcastically. Then I shut my eyes again before Medusa could come over.

_Think me, think. How do I defeat her _this_ time? There's got to be a way._

I heard Medusa walk over to where I was. I heard her squat down next to me. The snakes that made up her hair started biting me playfully. I squeezed my eyes closed tighter. "Well Percy Jackson, we meet again. I hear you are invincible now. Why be afraid to open your eyes?"

"The curse of Achilles won't protect me from that. I'll just be an invincible statue."

The bites of the snakes got painful. Medusa growled. "Percy Jackson, you _will_ open your eyes."

"Can I take a rain check?" I asked. It was probably pretty stupid of me to say, but I am ADHD.

Slowly I reached into my pocket and pulled out Riptide. No way I could manuver my sword from this location, but...

"Ben you okay?" I called. The biting of the snakes got worse.

I heard a mumble, but it was enough. I tossed the pen in the direction of the voice, flicking the cap off. I heard it expand into a sword in midair, then clatter to the floor. Medusa turned towards it. I could tell by the way the snakes moved. If she had her attention on ben my plan wouldn't work. I grabbed blindly, and pulled on a chunk of Medusa's hair. She screamed and twisted back towards me, her back now facing Ben. It was the perfect chance.

"Give up Medusa. You should OPEN YOUR EYES yourself and see that I won't. You need to PICK sides more carefully. Basically telling the gods 'UP yours' doesn't turn out well. THE Titans didn't even give you a SWORD. And yet you still side with Krios and Echidna, who will STAB YOU IN THE BACK as soon as spit on the ground."

Medusa hissed. "The gods are even worse, and their downfall would me great riches and glory for me. You just wait until-" but she never got to finish her sentence, because all that was left of her was a pile of sand.

I opened my eyes. Standing there was the nerd himself, Ben, holding my sword in a thrusting position. "I-I-I just-" he stammered.

"Killed your first monster. Congrats. It's not every day you kill Medusa. Now come on we have to find Thalia and your brother."

"What is going on?" he asked as he handed me back my sword. "And won't parents be upset to discover their kids are all stone!" He pointed around the room. There were a lot of them.

"The mist'll deal with that. As to what's going on, I'll leave that to Chiron."

The two of them left the classroom and ran right into Thalia and Josiah. She looked startled. "Ben was attacked too?"

"Hey Josiah," I said. "And yeah Thalia, he was. Medusa in fact. Josiah was attacked?"

"Yeah. We'll swap stories on the way."

After we loaded into the car, Ben and I filled Thalia and Josiah in on what had happened to us. Thalia nodded. "Hmmm... troubling. Well for me things were pretty interesting as well. Josiah was hitting on me in art class. I blatantly told him I wasn't interested. He was persistent and pesky though.

"Anyway that continued for the first half of the period, until our substitute teacher, Crusty-"

"Wait a minute, Crusty was your sub?"

"Yeah. What happened next..."

I had finally gotten Josiah to shut up. Gods he was annoying. What part of "no" did he not understand. I knew he was a son of Athena of course, so I had to "protect" him, but really I just wanted to feed him to a hellhound right now.

We were just working on our art projects. Mine was a lightning-bolt [shut up Percy, it isn't funny]. Anyway, our substitute, Mr. Crusty said, "You know what, class is dismissed early. All of you may go, except Thalia and Josiah."

_Uh-oh,_ I thought. _This can't be good_.

We stepped forward slowly. I had out my Mace canister and was ready to expand it into a spear. Crusty looked at us. "You two want beds?"

"What?" I asked, confused.

Josiah burst out laughing. "I'm sorry, did you just ask us if we wanted 'beds'?"

"Yes," Crusty said. "I want to sell the two of you very special beds. I sell beds normally you see, but I can't sell them while I am substituting. But you two are very special. I brought you both a sample bed to try out."

We followed him to the back closet, but I had a very bad feeling about what was going on. He showed us two water beds. "Brought them in just this morning," he said proudly. One had a black headboard with silver bows crossed with bolts of lightning. "That one is yours," he told me.

"Thanks, but I'd really rather not," I told him.

"Nonsense," he said. And he pushed me down on the bed. "Hmm, too short." He snapped his fingers and ropes tied themselves around my armpits and ankles. Then they started to slowly pull.

"Aahhh!" I cried out in pain as the bed stretched me. Josiah looked on in horror.

"What are you doing to her?" he asked. Unfortunately, I already knew. He was Procrustes, "The Stretcher".

Crusty smiled kindly. "Fitting her. You see my boy, I want to give her this bed, but she's not quite the right size. All my beds are six feet long. If you're not the perfect size, then adjustments must be made to make you the right size. So if they aren't tall enough I stretch them."

I saw Josiah gulp. "And if they're too tall?"

"Simple," Crusty said. He reached over to the wall and pulled out a double-bladed ax. "I cut off the excess."

"Oh," I heard Josiah say in a small voice. It was getting hard for me to see, because my eyes were tearing up from the pain. "You wouldn't fancy lying on that bed to show me how it works, would you?"

Crusty snorted. "Please, not falling for that one again. Another kid already did that to me a few years back. Now why don't we try out your bed?"

"I will," Josiah said, sounding like he had a plan. Good, because I couldn't think through the pain. "But first can I see that ax, it is quite impressive."

"You think so?"

"Oh yeah, you should enter ax competitions with that thing."

"Really? I agree. But most people don't appreciate my ax as much as you do."

"Well that's too bad, they are really missing out on something special. Hey do you think I could hold the ax, feel the balance?"

"Yeah go right ahead." I blinked back my tears momentarily to see Crusty hand Josiah the ax.

Josiah almost dropped it on his foot, but was able to hold it. "Wow this is pretty heavy."

"Yeah it is," Crusty said. "It was specially designed for me."

"Really?" Josiah grunted. "Well, let's see what happens when I do this." He swung the ax. Crusty yelped, "Not again!" and then became a pile of sand. Josiah cut the ropes holding me.

"Thanks," I grunted. "Now come on we've got to find Percy and go."

"Don't I get a kiss for rescuing you?" he asked, smirking.

I kneed him in the crotch and he sang soprano. "Nice try lover boy," I said sarcastically. "Now come on."

"And that's what happened," Thalia concluded.

"Crusty came back too eh?" I said. "That makes four from my first summer. Echidna, Medusa, the Minotaur, and Crusty. Five actually, if you count Chimera, even though we haven't fought it yet."

"That's not normal..."

"No it isn't," I agreed. "I have a bad feeling about it."

Just then we arrived at Half-Blood Hill. It was time to show the twins their new home.

**AN: And that concludes this chapter. So long, until next time, which will probably be a Halloween special.**


	6. Halloween Special!

**AN: The promised Halloween special. For this chapter alone, Thalia is not a main character, but instead, Nico makes and appearance as a "guest star". This is set around Halloween (obviously). Not sure if this chapter would be considered all that "scary", but here it is. The Raven is actually in this story, so read it if you want, but you don't have to. I do, however, draw a couple of parallels to the poem. This chapter is divided into sections, each with a roman numeral at the beginning. Unless stated otherwise, Percy is the narator**

**Disclaimer: I know, haven't done one since the first chapter. I think one per story is enough. But this isn't for PJO, this is for the Raven. I am not Edgar Allen Poe. Plus, he's dead.**

Percy Jackson and the Curse of Echidna

Halloween

I

The day was normal until Nico showed up. Ok, I'll back up. It was the Friday before Halloween. A lot of people at school were dressed up, including me. What was I you might ask? I was the zombie of Achilles. Yeah, lame, I know, but my history teacher gave me bonus points on my next test, so I was okay. It was english, and Paul was reading us the Raven.

"Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary,  
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,  
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,  
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.  
`'Tis some visitor,' I muttered, `tapping at my chamber door -  
Only this, and nothing more.'

Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,  
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.  
Eagerly I wished the morrow; - vainly I had sought to borrow  
From my books surcease of sorrow - sorrow for the lost Lenore -  
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels named Lenore -  
Nameless here for evermore.

And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain  
Thrilled me - filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;  
So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating  
`'Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door -  
Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door; -  
This it is, and nothing more,'

Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer,  
`Sir,' said I, `or Madam, truly your forgiveness I implore;  
But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping,  
And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door,  
That I scarce was sure I heard you' - here I opened wide the door; -  
Darkness there, and nothing more.

Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,  
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before;  
But the silence was unbroken, and the darkness gave no token,  
And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, `Lenore?'  
This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, `Lenore!'  
Merely this and nothing more.

Back into the chamber turning, all my soul within me burning,  
Soon again I heard a tapping somewhat louder than before.  
`Surely,' said I, `surely that is something at my window lattice;  
Let me see then, what thereat is, and this mystery explore -  
Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore; -  
'Tis the wind and nothing more!'

Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter,  
In there stepped a stately raven of the saintly days of yore.  
Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he;  
But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door -  
Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door -  
Perched, and sat, and nothing more.

Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,  
By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore,  
`Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou,' I said, `art sure no craven.  
Ghastly grim and ancient raven wandering from the nightly shore -  
Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore!'  
Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'

Much I marvelled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse so plainly,  
Though its answer little meaning - little relevancy bore;  
For we cannot help agreeing that no living human being  
Ever yet was blessed with seeing bird above his chamber door -  
Bird or beast above the sculptured bust above his chamber door,  
With such name as `Nevermore.'

But the raven, sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke only,  
That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour.  
Nothing further then he uttered - not a feather then he fluttered -  
Till I scarcely more than muttered `Other friends have flown before -  
On the morrow he will leave me, as my hopes have flown before.'  
Then the bird said, `Nevermore.'

Startled at the stillness broken by reply so aptly spoken,  
`Doubtless,' said I, `what it utters is its only stock and store,  
Caught from some unhappy master whom unmerciful disaster  
Followed fast and followed faster till his songs one burden bore -  
Till the dirges of his hope that melancholy burden bore  
Of "Never-nevermore."'

But the raven still beguiling all my sad soul into smiling,  
Straight I wheeled a cushioned seat in front of bird and bust and door;  
Then, upon the velvet sinking, I betook myself to linking  
Fancy unto fancy, thinking what this ominous bird of yore -  
What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt, and ominous bird of yore  
Meant in croaking `Nevermore.'

This I sat engaged in guessing, but no syllable expressing  
To the fowl whose fiery eyes now burned into my bosom's core;  
This and more I sat divining, with my head at ease reclining  
On the cushion's velvet lining that the lamp-light gloated o'er,  
But whose velvet violet lining with the lamp-light gloating o'er,  
_She_ shall press, ah, nevermore!

Then, methought, the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen censer  
Swung by Seraphim whose foot-falls tinkled on the tufted floor.  
`Wretch,' I cried, `thy God hath lent thee - by these angels he has sent thee  
Respite - respite and nepenthe from thy memories of Lenore!  
Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe, and forget this lost Lenore!'  
Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'

`Prophet!' said I, `thing of evil! - prophet still, if bird or devil! -  
Whether tempter sent, or whether tempest tossed thee here ashore,  
Desolate yet all undaunted, on this desert land enchanted -  
On this home by horror haunted - tell me truly, I implore -  
Is there - _is_ there balm in Gilead? - tell me - tell me, I implore!'  
Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'

`Prophet!' said I, `thing of evil! - prophet still, if bird or devil!  
By that Heaven that bends above us - by that God we both adore -  
Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn,  
It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels named Lenore -  
Clasp a rare and radiant maiden, whom the angels named Lenore?'  
Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'

`Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend!' I shrieked upstarting -  
`Get thee back into the tempest and the Night's Plutonian shore!  
Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken!  
Leave my loneliness unbroken! - quit the bust above my door!  
Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!'  
Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'

And the raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting  
On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;  
And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming,  
And the lamp-light o'er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor;  
And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor  
Shall be lifted – nevermore!"

Paul finished the poem and looked up. "Now, who can tell me why the fact that the bird was sitting on the bust of Pallas is significant?"

We were all silent, until the door burst open. The room suddenly seemed to grow colder. In stepped a boy with black hair, pale skin, and olive green eyes. Nico was now in my school. _Sure why not, Thalia's here, _I thought. He was wearing the most realistic zombie costume I'd ever seen, but I guess he knew from experience what zombies looked like.

"Because it lends credibility to the Raven's words. Pallas is the shorthand for Pallas Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom. If the bird is on her bust, then what he says is credible." Nico smiled at the students looking at him funny.

"Um," Paul said. "Correct. Um, if you don't mind me asking, who are you?"

"Sorry Mr. Blofis. I'm Nico, a friend of Percy's. May I borrow him for a bit?"

Paul looked at me quizically. I shrugged. "Alright," he said slowly. "Percy you are excused."

I nodded and stood up. I followed Nico out of the room. Once out I said, "What in Hades is going on?"

The look on Nico's face was dark. "If I could tell you I wouldn't be here."

"Huh? What are you talking about? And besides, aren't you too young to be here? In the High School?"

"I just turned thirteen. I would be an eighth grader. Maybe I was just visiting the High School to learn my way around. But that's not the point. I need your help."

"With what?"

"Death."

"What? I'm not helping you to commit suicide if that's what you're thinking!" I was pretty freaked out by this.

"No, no. Listen. Death, known modernly as the 'Grim Reaper' is out of control."

"Wait a minute, the Grim Reaper is real?"

"Yes," Nico said as if this were obvious. "Originally he was Thanatos. His job was to escort humans to the underworld. He wasn't evil, and the Greeks saw him as just. But as the West's interpretation of him changed, so did he. Death came to have such a negative stigma, that Thanatos's actual form and personality changed. He became the modern 'Grim Reaper'. About ninety years ago he lost all restraint and killed many people before their time. This death of many people long before they should've died became what is known as the Flu Pandemic of 1918. My father was furious. He sent one of his children to find Death and bring him back to him in chains. The mission was successful. Death was sentenced to Tartarus, and father set up a new method for getting spirits to the entrance of the Underworld.

"But about a week ago, Death escaped. Surely you've heard about the strange deaths recently? Death has only begun to wipe out humanity. And he's only just started. He wants to 'cleanse' the world of those who were supposed to die, which means that if anyone ever did something even moderately life threatening, he thinks they should be dead."

"Which means?"

"Which means that anyone who's ever, I don't know, bungie jumped, or skydived, or even ridden a roller coaster, Death wants dead."

"That's like, everyone in America!"

Nico nodded grimly. "Nearly everyone in the world has done at least one life threatening thing in their life, however mildly threatening it was."

I gulped. "So what do you need me to help you with?" I had a feeling I knew the answer, and I didn't like it.

"I need you to help me defeat Death."

"I was afraid you'd say that."

"Trust me, you are no where near afraid yet."

He held out his arm and looked at me expectantly. I looked at him quizzically. "What do you want me to do?"

Nico rolled his eyes. "Grab my arm. We're shadow traveling."

"Where?"

"To go see Mr. Kevorkian."

"Who?"

"Dr. Death. Believe it or not, he's actually met Death before. Where do you think the nickname came from?"

"I still don't know who you're talking about," I said, feeling really stupid.

"Just grab my arm!" Nico snapped.

"Can you even shadow travel both of us?"

Nico got a worried look on his face. "I think so..."

He didn't sound to certain, but I grabbed his arm and closed my eyes tight. I hoped we ended up wear we were supposed to go, and that all of us made it there. Then Nico stepped forward, and I went along. Soon we were immersed in the shadows.

II

After the rush of excitement that went with shadow travel, Nico and I emerged outside a house. It wasn't anything fancy. A plain, one story house, painted blue. The sunlight was bright, and the white door shined. Nico stumbled, tired, but regained his balance and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. "Excellent. We're here."

"Where are we?" I asked.

"Michigan, the house of Jack Kevorkian, better known as Dr. Death."

He walked forward without hesitation. Nervously, I followed.

"Um, Nico?" I asked as he pressed the doorbell button. "You do realize that we're still in costume, right?"

He glanced down at our clothes in surprise as if it hadn't even occurred to him that we would look funny. He opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, the door opened.

When you hear the name Dr. Death, you think scary, right? Well Kevorkian wasn't scary at all. He was an old guy, with white hair that had receded from the front of his head. His face was long and thin, but not at all intimidating. And he wasn't wearing what "Dr. Death" should've been wearing. He wore a plain button down shirt and black pants.

He looked at us amused, then said, "Halloween isn't until Sunday you know, and usually people don't trick or treat in broad daylight." Then he added, a little sadly, "No kids come to trick or treat here anymore anyway..."

Nico's face was red. "No, no. Dr. Kevorkian, we aren't trick or treating. We just, uh... Well we forgot to change our clothes. We actually have something important to discuss with you."

He raised his eyebrows. "Indeed? If it's about euthanasia, you'll have to come next time I give a lecture. I have a few lined up."

I had no idea what euthanasia was, so I kept my mouth shut, and decided to let Nico do the talking. Nico did. "No not about that. We, uh," he lowered his voice, "we work for Hades. I'm the son of Hades."

The doctor's eyebrows rose even further. "Indeed? Well come in, son of Hades and friend."

We stepped inside. Kevorkian closed the door behind us. "Can I get you anything? Water, perhaps?"

"I'll pass," Nico said.

"I'll have some," I said. Then remembering my "manners" I added, "Please."

He stepped into the kitchen, leaving Nico and I alone in the living room. It was spacious, with decent enough furniture. Nico and I sat on the couch. The doctor emerged from the kitchen carrying my water. "If you'd be kind enough to set it on the coaster on the coffee table when you're not drinking your water."

"Sure," I said.

Kevorkian smiled his thanks, then sat down in an armchair facing us. "So gentlemen working for Hades, how can I assist you?"

I looked at Nico questioningly, and he gave me a look back that said, _Let me do the talking_.

I obliged. I didn't know who this guy was anyway. Plus I had a cup of water. I had an excuse not to talk.

"Dr. Kevorkian," Nico began.

"Please," he said, "call me Jack. We're all demigods here are we not? All related on the godly side."

"You're a demigod?" I blurted out. I had never seen one who was _this_ old before. Sure Daedalus had been older, but he was in a mechanical body, so that didn't count. "Who's child are you?"

Kevorkian looked at me and said, "Why, I am a son of Athena, goddess of Wisdom."

I gagged. "You're my girlfriend's brother?"

Nico elbowed me, and shook his head, clearly indicating that this was impolite. Kevorkian just smiled sadly, "I expected such a reaction. Euthanasia is so controversial, I can understand why you find it repulsing that I am related to your girlfriend on the godly side."

"No, it's not that," I said quickly, which was true. "I don't even know what euthanasia is. It's just that, well I didn't know she had siblings that were so _old_."

Nico hid his face in his hands to hide his embarrassment. Kevorkian laughed. "I admire you kid. You are very bold. A son of Zeus, maybe? Or Poseidon perhaps?"

"Poseidon," I said, proudly. To show off my abilities, I made the water in my glass fly a couple of laps around the room. Then I brought the water back into my glass. "Cool, huh?"

Kevorkian smiled. "Indeed it is."

"Dr. Kevorkian," Nico started again. "Or Jack, whichever. We need your help. You have supposedly gone to Tartarus and returned before, the only mortal to do so. In the process, you met Death, otherwise known as the Grim Reaper or Thanatos."

He nodded. "Yes I did. Something was very wrong with him mentally. His personality seemed to shift between a kind person, and the dark, dooming figure of the Grim Reaper. I spent quite a long time with him actually. He seemed to spend more time as the Reaper, than as Thanatos. In fact, I believe that the Thanatos in him was becoming consumed by the Grim Reaper in him."

"When did you meet him?" Nico asked.

"Oh, 1975 I think. Yes, that was the year. But why do you want to know?"

Nico took a deep breath, "Because the Grim Reaper has escaped, and is killing everyone who had an even mildly near death experience. I was ordered to hunt Death down, and I enlisted Percy's help. We were wondering, if you had any clue where he might be hiding. Do you?"

Kevorkian thought for a long time. "In the time I spent with Death, I learned a few things about him. One of which is that he's conceited. Beyond belief. Any place that has 'Death' in the name of it, may be a good place to check. And I wouldn't put it past him to actually hide in the Underworld, just to spite your father. Other than that, anyplace where the death rate is high, you could expect to find him."

Nico smiled. "Thanks sir. I think that's it." He stood to go. I stood as well. "It's been a pleasure."

Kevorkian stood too. He held out his hand and shook both of ours. "It was a pleasure to talk to other demigods. It's been so long since I've had a proper conversation with one. It's been even longer since one didn't ask me about my beliefs."

Nico and I went to the door. Nico opened it, and walked out. I turned to follow him, when Kevorkian added, "Oh and Son of Poseidon, euthanasia is assisted suicide, or mercy killing."

I gaped at him. But then Nico called. So I said, "Bye, and thanks." And left. Kevorkian called goodbye to us as he closed the door.

I caught up with Nico, who was already on his way to the end of the block. "He helped people commit suicide?"

Nico looked at me. "The terminally ill, yes. Why does that matter to you, you didn't even know who he was."

"I don't know, it just seems... wrong."

"It depends on how you look at it. I'm not saying it's wrong, I'm not saying it's right. But he has strong beliefs, and what he says should be listened to. He is a son of Athena. His words are credible. Then again, there are children of Athena, who believe euthanasia is wrong. They should be listened to as well. Since they are children of the wisdom goddess, all of their words must be taken into account. Their words are all credible. But I'm not going to talk to you about the ethics of Euthanasia or the credibility of the words of those related to Athena. We need to decide where we are going to go next."

I stared at the ground. Where to go next? I was dreadfully unprepared for this journey. And we couldn't just let Nico handle all of the transportation. "Camp Half-Blood. We need supplies. And you need rest after the shadow travel. We can pick up Mrs. O' Leary and lighten your load."

"I'd like to start searching now... but you do have a point... Camp Half-Blood it is."

He held out his arm. Once again I grabbed it, and we shadow traveled away from Michigan.

III

When we arrived at Camp Half-Blood, Nico passed out. "Great," I muttered. Luckily we had traveled to the shadows of the dining pavilion, and Lunch was just being finished by the year-rounders. Some of the new campers screamed, but most just went back to eating. Chiron came over, as did Bonnie, Clyde, Butch, Ben, Josiah, and of course the Stoll twins. I kept my hands on my wallet.

"Hey dude," Josiah greeted. I could tell he was Josiah from the lack of glasses. "Who's this?"

"Nico, son of Hades," I answered.

"Obviously he's a son of Hades," Ben said. "Did you not see how the shadows just kind of created him? And you call yourself a son of Athena?"

Josiah got an angry look on his face, but Chiron said, "Please you two. Not now. Take Nico down to his cabin. Percy, you had better come with me, and uh, fill me in."

Chiron led me to the big house and (big surprise) the others followed. They all wanted to know what was going on with Nico and me. Chiron led us to the rec. room. Clarisse's knife was still stuck in the table from over the summer. Bonnie, Clyde, Butch and the Stoll brothers stood around the ping pong table. Chiron stood opposite me, so it looked like he and I were about to play ping pong, and the others wanted to watch.

"Please, go ahead Percy," Chiron said.

"Um we kinda need paddles and a ball if we're going to play," I joked.

Clyde chuckled, but no one else did. The others just rolled their eyes at how lame my joke had been. "Anyway, here's what's happened..."

So I told them everything I knew about what was going on. After my story they all had uneasy looks on their faces. I noticed Bonnie had grabbed Clyde's hand.

"This is indeed troubling," Chiron said. "Only a child of Hades may defeat Death, and even then, it is a challenge. Finding him is the easy part. Dr. Kevorkian was right. Thanatos is conceited and will go somewhere to 'prove a point'. In fact it wouldn't surprise me if he were hiding in the Underworld. But I think I know wear else Death may be hiding."

"Where?" I asked.

"Somewhere that is really an audacious place to hide. Right under the noses of the gods. He's hiding somewhere in New York. I'm sure of it."

"Nico and I did all that travel for nothing?"

"No, you found out something important about the enemy. Death is conceited. And I do believe that other information you learned from the doctor will help you fight Death."

"Fine. When do Nico and I leave again?"

"I advise that you two leave tomorrow morning. Take a break for now. You have a lot of work to do if you are to stop Thanatos."

I nodded. "Alright. I'll head down to the dining pavilion, maybe there's some food left still."

Chiron smiled. "A wise choice Percy. I do want to speak to both you and Nico tonight though, before you turn in for the night."

"Okay," I said. "We'll be here."

I then headed back down to the dining pavilion and started eating the leftovers, that is, after I had given Poseidon an offering. I ate alone at the Poseidon table, looking out at Long Island Sound. I sighed. This is exactly what I had been looking at the day of my birthday, when Annabeth and I had shared that blue cupcake, and shared our first _real_ kiss. I didn't count the one in the volcano because... well I just didn't.

This whole thing confused me. Who was right? Kevorkian, or Chiron? Would the Grim Reaper be in New York, or in the Underworld? They seemed like the most likely places for him to hide, when he wasn't killing off people. And that was the other thing. How fast was he killing people off, and how log would we have to stop him before he did too much damage. I needed advice. I needed Annabeth. She would know what to do. But unfortunately, Annabeth wasn't here now. She was at her boarding school, spending every free moment working on Olympus.

I sighed, and soon I realized that I was the only one left in the pavilion. Or so I thought.

"So, Nico enlisted your help did he?" an oily voice asked. I spun around. There stood the Lord of the Dead himself, Hades. He had changed out his robes that were covered with the faces of the damned for a plain black suit.

"Yeah," I said. "He did. But why do you care?"

"Because Jackson, I know who to blame if Nico doesn't come back alive. Keep him alive Jackson."

"I'll do my best." It scared me how much Hades sounded like Nico had when he had asked me to watch out for Bianca. "But I told Nico something similar – about Bianca. He will make his own choices, and those choices may kill him. I hope you understand Lord Hades." Hades didn't look like he did, but I had said what I had to. Then an idea occurred to me. "Lord Hades, do you perhaps know where Death is hiding?"

"Humph," he said. "I have searched every corner of the Underworld and cannot find him. But I do think I know where he may be."

"Where?"

"I am warning you though Jackson, you and my son may never return, though you will not be dead. It would be best to try to lure Thanatos out."

"Where is Death hiding!"

The look on Hades's face was grim. "The Lotus Hotel and Casino."

The idea of returning there did not bode well with me. "Well... why are you convinced he's there? And why can't you get him and bring him out yourself?"

"I know he's there because people that I know were there have been showing up in the Underworld. As for the other question, the gods can't directly interfere, and those in charge of the Lotus are not gods or Titans. We can't initiate attack on them. We could only attack or otherwise harm them if they attempted to do the same to us first. But they know better than to try. But that must be where Thanatos is. I wish you luck Jackson. If you and my son _do_ for some reason enter, take this medallion. It should stir your memories and help you remain yourself. But beware, it can only protect one person at a time. The two of you will have to decide a way to make sure both of you are protected."

He handed me a large coin made of copper on a black string, with a picture of Hades on one side, and the words, _Remember the Lethe_ in Ancient Greek on the other. "Thanks, but how will this help us retain our memories?" But when I looked up, Hades was gone.

That night, I couldn't get to sleep. When Nico and I had gone to see Chiron, he had told us that Death would be at his strongest on Halloween, at midnight. If we couldn't stop him by then, then the world was basically over. That was going to be difficult, seeing as only a few hours in the Casino had actually been days.

Nico and I would have to avoid playing games at all, and solely focus on our job. If anything, Nico seemed more nervous than I was. He had been in there for _decades_. He didn't want to go back.

I turned over and looked at the salt water fountain in the corner. That's it, I didn't care how late it was. I needed advice. I needed Annabeth. I got up out of bed and grabbed a gold drachma from the nightstand. I flicked it into the mist and said, "Oh Iris, goddess of rainbows, please accept my offering." After a short pause I added, "Annabeth Chase, New York City."

An image flickered into life. Annabeth lay asleep in her bed, her blond hair loose and untidy, her gray eyes closed. I had never actually seen Annabeth asleep before. Okay on those quests when it was my turn to take watch, she had slept, but I'd never actually seen her sleep in a _normal_ situation. I snapped out of it. I needed her help. As much as I would probably regret it, I needed to wake her up.

"Annabeth," I whispered. "Annabeth, wake up." She mumbled something in her sleep. I decided to try to be louder. "Annabeth!"

Maybe I was a little too loud, because when Annabeth snapped awake, she screamed and tumbled out of her bed. I winced in sympathy. "Sorry," I said.

She stood up. "Percy what in the name of Hades are you doing! It's midnight!"

"Sorry. I just – well I need your advice."

I must have looked as scared as I felt, because Annabeth's expression softened. "What's the matter Percy? What's going on?"

I told her everything that had happened. She seemed very concerned, but let me finish without interrupting. "And now we have to leave in the morning and basically have two more days to stop Death."

Annabeth sighed. "I'm coming."

"No," I said. "I don't want you to end up stuck in the Lotus. Chances are Nico and I will. We can only hope to stop Death before we forget who we are."

"Don't say that Percy! Of course you'll remember who you are! Hades gave you that medallion to help you retain your memories."

"Only one person at a time can use it," I said. "It's bad enough that two people have to share. Either Nico or I will constantly be near to losing ourselves. Three people though – two people would be at risk at once. We can't have that happening. It won't work. "

"You are such a seaweed brain sometimes!" she snapped. "I want to help."

"Olympus can't lose its architect. Not now when there's still so much work to be done. But I've already played my part. I don't have any more work to do."

"What about at your school? Thalia still needs your help."

"Thalia can handle it herself. I know it."

"But what if I still need you..."

Annabeth looked about ready to cry. "Annabeth, listen. I need to do this. I've played my part in saving the world. If Nico and I become stuck in the Lotus, then so be it. It's not the worst fate ever. But if it makes you feel better, I'll... I'll swear on the River Styx that I'll return. Then I have to, right?"

Annabeth bit her lip, but nodded slowly.

"Alright then," I said. "I swear on the River Styx that I will return." Thunder boomed in the distance.

"I," Annabeth said. "I – I-"

"Yes?" I asked.

"I – I have to get back to sleep," she finished miserably. I had a feeling that wasn't what she was going to say at all, but I didn't say anything. "You'd better come back!"

"I will," I said, more confident than I had been before. Why was I so scared? I could do this. "I'll see you."

She nodded and lay back down. I waved my hand through the mist and the image dissolved. For some reason, reassuring Annabeth that I would return, help _me_ believe I really would. I lay back down, and closed my eyes. Just my luck, it was the first dream I'd had since the end of the war.

IV

In my dream I was siting in a chair, with a heavy book laying on my lap. My dream self was nodding off, which I didn't even know was possible in a dream. The fire in the fireplace in the "dream room" was dying down, casting eerie shadows all over the floor. I realized that I had no control over the body of my dream self. That's when I heard a sharp rapping. My dream self jerked his head towards the door.

"It's just someone who wants to see me," I heard myself say. "Just someone who wants to talk to me. That's all."

But no movement was made towards the door. And then the rapping came again. My dream self stood up slowly and looked at the door. "Hello, I am sorry I did not answer sooner, sir or ma'am. But you see I was napping."

And again came the rapping. I felt myself walk slowly to the door. My dream self gripped the door handle and slowly turned the nob. Then the door was flung open violently, and my dream self stared out of the door. There was darkness, but nothing else.

I heard myself ask, "Annabeth?"

An echo came back, but it wasn't a normal echo. Most of the time the echo would be, "Annabeth?" but this time it was "Annabeth!" The change in the tone startled me, and apparently it startled my dream self too. My dream self began to close the door. Just before it shut, a skeletal hand grabbed the door frame. My dream self screamed in surprise and lurched away from the door. But I fell to the floor. The door was swung wide open. In stepped an ominous figure. His hands were bleached white skeletal hands, and gripped a huge scythe that filled me with even more fear than Kronos's had. I couldn't see the rest of him, because he was wearing a long black cloak. Glowing red eyes could be seen from the blackness of his hood, but the rest of his face was completely obscured.

I knew I was looking at Death. "Percy Jackson. You have avoided dying far too many times. Now you must pay the consequences."

He swung his scythe down at my head. At the last second I jerked awake in a cold sweat.

V

The next morning I didn't tell Nico about my dream. It had freaked me out too much. But from the look on Nico's face, I think he may have had a similar dream. We went to the top of Half Blood Hill as the sun rose. It was October 30th. We had until tomorrow at midnight to stop Death.

Chiron arrived with Mrs. O' Leary. Mrs. O' Leary leaped on top of me as soon as she saw me. Apparently I had been missed. It took a full ten minutes to get her off of me.

"Be careful," Chiron said. "Nico, I do not think it wise that you shadow travel under your own power anymore. You need to save your energy for your fight with Thanatos."

Nico nodded reluctantly. He was dressed for travel now, wearing his Dia de los Muertos t-shirt and his pilot's jacket. He was wearing a strange watch, but I didn't think anything of it. I was dressed more appropriately for travel too. I was wearing jeans and an orange camp t-shirt under a light jacket.

Nico borded Mrs. O' Leary. I started to as well, when Chiron grabbed my arm. "Percy, I have one last thing to tell you. Thanatos's scythe will not be hindered by your invulnerability. When you fight him, you will be just as mortal as everyone else."

I gulped, but nodded. The Grim Reaper wasn't our biggest problem. Our biggest problem would be escaping from the Lotus, but my confidence was still there. We could do this. I climbed all the way onto Mrs. O' Leary. I said, "Okay girl, time to go to the outside entrance of Lotus Hotel and Casino."

Mrs. O' Leary sniffed the air, and then bounded towards the shadows of the woods.

We rematerialized outside my least favorite hotel in the world, the Lotus.

"Good job girl," I told Mrs. O' Leary. "You take a nice long break. Nico and I will be back out in... well hopefully a few hours. If we aren't out in a day go back to camp and get help, okay?"

Mrs. O' Leary barked, which I hoped meant yes and not, What did you say?

Nico and I hopped off Mrs. O' Leary's back. I turned to Nico. "You ready for this?"

He sighed. He definitely _didn't_ look ready. Ready to throw up maybe, but not to enter the Lotus again. But he looked ahead determinedly. "Yeah. Let's do this."

Together we stepped forward and into the doors of the Lotus. As soon as we entered, I pulled out the medallion. "We'll take turns. You wear it first. Find me after five minutes. Count in your head if you have to. If I still have my sense of self, keep it for another five and so on, until it seems I've started to lose my memories. Clear?"

Nico nodded."Alright. Sounds like a plan. That way one of us always keeps our memories."

I handed him the medallion. Just then the doorman stepped forward and offered us the Lotus cards.

"Can we check in without them?" I asked.

The doorman laughed. "Of course not. What kind of silly question is that. Please, take the cards, and enjoy yourselves." Nico and I reluctantly took our cards. After that the doorman left.

"Alright," I said. "Split up and look for Death. You go check the upper floors and I'll check the game area. Come find me after the five minutes."

"Um, Percy, I think you should look upstairs."

"Why? It wasn't like I was going to play the games." Then I realized that that's what part of me was screaming to do. "Your right. You've got the medallion. _You_ check the game floor and I'll head upstairs. If one of us finds Death, we use these." I pulled two walkie talkies away from a nearby security guard. "Deal?"

Nico nodded. "Yeah, let's do this."

And with that we split up. Once I was at the elevator, the doorman reappeared. "Ah going to see your room, are you?"

"Not really," I said. "I'm looking for someone who looks like the Grim Reaper, can you tell me where he is?"

The doorman laughed. "No silly, first you have to be shown to your room."

I reluctantly obliged. I forced myself to remember my promise to Annabeth. I would return. I wouldn't forget. We got into the elevator and began heading up. On the way, the walkie talkie beeped.

"Percy you there?" Nico asked.

"Yeah I'm here. Have you found him yet?"

"No, but I can't find you and it's been an hour."

My mind was boggled. One hour already? How was that possible.

The doorman looked at me. "Why is your friend keeping time here? It is fun here, you should never have to keep track of how long you've been here."

I laughed nervously. "Well you know, my cousin, he's very odd that way. He always insists on checking in with me every five minutes."

The doorman nodded like this was acceptable. I whispered into the walkie talkie, "Don't worry about me, keep looking."

The doors of the elevator finally dinged open. The doorman led me to a room and said, "The door may be opened by your Lotus Card. Please check to make sure that you find the room satisfactory."

I opened the door and all I could say was, "Whoa."

It was huge, with a full size water bed, a huge TV, and a full size aquarium with all manner of strange sea creatures. A door led to a black room, that must've been Nico's. The snack bar was loaded with blue food in my room, and a trident hung over the TV.

I almost forgot my purpose then and there, but then I felt a tingling feeling on the small of my back. My lifeline. I had to remember who I was and why I was here. I turned back to the doorman. "This room is amazing," I said. "Now could you please tell me where the guy dressed as the Grim Reaper is staying?"

"Guy dressed as Grim Reaper? You mean Mr. Grim. He's in the Platinum Card members area."

"I really need to see him, can me and my cousin go to see him?"

"You both need Platinum Cards first."

"How does one get a Platinum Card?" I asked. I had a bad feeling that whatever the way, it would make Nico and I want to stay for eternity.

"All you have to do," explained the doorman, "is play one game, then come see me."

"Sounds easy enough."

I found Nico back downstairs and explained the situation, then I asked him how long we'd been there. He told me four hours, though it only seemed like ten minutes, at most.

"Okay," I said. "Whoever is playing the game, has to wear the medallion. We'll take turns. After we've both played one game, then we get the Platinum upgrades."

Nico nodded. He was the first to play a game. He played a fighter pilot simulator. And the bad news was that he loved it. He prepared to swipe his card to play another game, but I grabbed his hand. He glared at me, then seemed to realize what he had been about to do, and stopped playing.

Next it was my turn. I had to find a game I would love... _NO!_ I forced myself to think. _Find the most boring game here and play it._

The trouble was that none of the games looked boring. Where was Annabel's – Annabeth's architecture game when you needed it?

Finally I settled for VR Shooters. I put on the medallion and stepped into the machine. After one round I was ready for more, and I had already started my second game when Nico slapped me across the face and brought me back to my senses. He decided that I should keep the medallion for a bit. I agreed.

We walked over to the main desk and asked to get our cards upgraded. They smiled a lot and upgraded our cards immediately. Now, for better or for worse, we were going into the Platinum section.

VI

Nico

Percy and I entered the Platinum section, and immediately I forgot everything. It was all so amazing. I started to run towards one of the games, but I felt ma hand on my shoulder, restraining me. It was that kid, what was his name? Peter? Pedro? Well anyway he was holding me back. I tried to shrug him off. Those games looked really amazing. After struggling for a bit, I felt him put something around my neck.

I snapped out of it. Percy and I were here for a reason. We had to stop Thanatos. Percy, however, had seemed to forget that. He started running off to the games. I grabbed his arm. "Whoa there! Remember Percy, we have a job to do."

"What are you talking about? We don't have a job! Our only job is to enjoy ourselves!"

He tried to pull away from me, but I tightened my grip, glacing at the watch on my wrist. A magic watch called an Underworld Sundial. "Percy, my special Underworld Sundial says that it is currently 10 o' clock at night on the 30th. It feels like we've only been here for half an hour, but Underworld Sundials can't lie, no matter where you are. That means that we have just over twenty four hours to stop Thanatos. We have to focus!"

Percy spun around and tried to punch me. I ducked, but kept a firm grip on Percy's other arm.

"Percy!" I yelled. "Snap out of it! Poseidon, Sally Jackson, Grover, Thalia, Rachel, Luke, Kronos!" None of those names seemed to have an effect on him. Time for the ace up my sleeve. If her name didn't snap him out of it, I didn't know who's would. "Annabeth!"

Percy stopped struggling, and stared at me in shock. Slowly, he said, "Oh my gods Nico. I – I forgot about Anna – Annabeth. I – the games look so amazing I... NO! I've got to resist their pull."

Percy was being driven insane by trying to resist the pull of the Platinum Card room. I was actually scared out of my wits. How were we going to make it through this? "We need two medallions..."

Percy was sweating violently now. "Nicholas – that's your name right? Nick, we don't have a second medallion. And – and I don't know how much longer I can resist the pull of this Hotel. I'm losing my mind!"

"We've got to find Thanatos, now," I said. "But how do we search this room for him..."

"He might fall for a trap," Percy answered. His eyes had a hungry light. "Maybe if I play one of the games, he'll come up and try to kill me. He already believes I've escaped death too many times."

"How do you know that?" I asked, curious. I had a feeling I knew though. The night before I had had a dream where Thanatos visited me and tried to kill me for not dying when I should've. Percy might have had a similar dream.

"D – dream," he stuttered. "Can't remember exact details."

I nodded grimly. "But there's no way you'll ever recover yourself if you play one of these Platinum Card member games."

Percy paused before responding. "I promised Anna – Annabeth that I would return, so I will."

I sighed. It was a dangerous plan, but the only one we had. "Fine, go play a game and lure over Death."

Percy nodded, then ran off to the games. I bent the shadows around me so I could hide and followed Percy. The games were even more amazing up close. It took all of my willpower, even with the medallion to not drop everything and engage in the activities. And there weren't just games. There was a dance floor, which always played the perfect songs, a big Imax theater, the biggest hot tub in the world, the list just went on and on.

I followed Percy deeper and deeper into the Platinum section, keeping my eyes open for Death. I had to constantly remind myself to keep checking my Underworld Sundial to make sure that we weren't losing track of time. Already it was three in the morning, the day of Halloween. We had less than twenty four hours to defeat Thanatos.

Percy had seemed to forget his purpose. He moved from activity to activity, enjoying himself thoroughly. Though I did notice that he didn't flirt with any of the girls, despite the fact that they were all attractive. I guess part of him was subconsciously remembering Annabeth. Four o' clock, and still no sign of Death. I noticed the effects of the medallion weakening too, so that it required more and more of my energy to keep my focus. Right when I was about to give up hope, I saw him.

Percy was playing pool with a couple of other people. Out of the shadows behind him stepped the most terrifying person I'd ever seen. He was at least seven feet tall, wearing a long, tattered black robe. A hood was pulled over his face, so that the only distinguishing feature of his face were the glowing red eyes. His hands, emerging from the sleeves of his robes, were skeletal, and his left one gripped a long scythe. One look at the thing and I knew that it had hreat power and magic behind its blade.

Thanatos raised his scythe and prepared to swing it, killing Percy. Naturally, I intervened. I dropped the shadow cover, and pulled out my sword, Blackthorn. I blocked Death's strike with my Stygian Iron blade.

"Not on my watch Thanatos," I grunted. He was strong, especially considering he was a skeleton.

"Ah, Nico," he said in a bone chilling voice. "I am glad to see you. Now both you and Jackson may die, as you both should have long ago."

"You don't tell me when to die," I grunted back. "I am the son of Hades. I am the Ghost King!"

Thanatos pushed against my blade harder, and I stumbled backwards into Percy.

"Hey watch it," he said when I bumped into him. He was completely oblivious to what was happening. That is until he saw Thanatos swing. "Look out!" he cried and jumped to the side, pulling me with him.

Death's strike cleaved the pool table in two, and where his scythe struck the floor, a strange green glow emitted. He turned to us, and I swore I could see him scowl under that hood. He advanced on us with blinding speed. I rolled aside. Percy drew Riptide. Apparently being in mortal danger had jogged his memory. He stood to meet Death. He swung at Percy horizontally. Percy ducked a strike that would've decapitated him, then stabbed Thanatos in the chest. But his blade seemed to pass clean through.

Thanatos bashed Percy with the butt of his scythe, and Percy collapsed. I ran in behind Thanatos and tried to stab him, but he must have sensed me coming. He spun around and blocked my strike. Percy struggled to stand up in the background, but I kept my main focus on Thanatos.

"Not bad for a skeleton," I said.

"What did you expect?" he asked. "I am the Grim Reaper!"

He pushed against my blade with all his might. I had to give up ground to avoid losing my balance. Percy had successfully stood, and was sneaking up behind Thanatos, motioning me to keep him busy.

"Not as scary though as some other Halloween creatures," I commented.

He let out a cackle of laughter. "Please! Who could be scarier than Death himself?"

I did my best to shrug while holding his blade in check. "I don't know. Ever heard of a guy named the Boogie Man? He's pretty terrifying. Oh and the Pumpkin King. He's pretty terrifying."

"Please the Boogie Man? All he can do is make your dreams scary. And the Pumpkin King isn't even a real Halloween being."

"No, he's real," I said, trying to sound convincing. "There's an entire song about him."

"What song?" Death asked sarcastically.

"This is Halloween!" Percy answered as he slashed at Thanatos's neck, a move that should've knocked his skeleton head clean off, but Percy's blade passed clean through.

Death let out a cry of anger at being fooled so easily, and a blast of dark energy knocked Percy and I off our feet, sending us sprawling in opposite directions. Death advanced on Percy quickly. I didn't have many options. I had to save Percy, he wasn't recovering quickly enough to defend himself. I closed my eyes and shadow traveled over to Percy. I appeared right behind him just as Death swung down at him. I grabbed his shoulder. I had to get us out of here. I didn't care where we teleported to, we just had to get out of the Lotus.

Suddenly darkness. Not dead darkness, but shadow travel darkness. When the travel ended, I saw that we had been teleported to the default destination for shadow travel. We were on the Plutonian Shore. We were on the banks of the River Styx.

VII

Percy

I almost broke down. I had forgotten everything, everyone, even my own name, until Thanatos had attacked. And then I had only remembered enough to keep myself alive. Annabeth...

If it hadn't been for Nico I would've broken my promise. I'd still be in the Lotus, or dead. I felt tear welling in my eyes, but I held them down. I don't think anything scared me worse than losing who I was.

Nico was over by the edge of the river, staring off into the darkness of the Underworld. I collected myself and stood. It was time to join Nico.

I walked slowly until I was standing next to my thirteen-year-old cousin. He didn't look at me when I joined him. "What's up Nico?"

"Waiting," he said shortly. "Death will follow us here. With any luck, we can draw the attention of the guards at the walls of Erebus." He pointed off to the darkness to our right, which seemed indistinguishable to me from the darkness that surrounded us elsewhere.

"How far are we from the wall?" I asked, squinting to try to see it.

"About a mile away," Nico said. "Chances are they are too far away to know hear us. We'll have to defeat Thanatos ourselves."

"And when we do?"

"You mean _if_ we do." Nico turned toward me, and I saw the look of fear in his eyes. "How do we expect to beat him? You can't harm him."

"But you can," I told him. "I'm sure of it. Only a child of Hades has the ability to defeat Death. You can win."

Nico summoned the skeleton of someone. He pointed at the skeleton, and his eyes glowed. He nodded respectfully at Nico. "Percy I'd like you to meet James Wilkins, son of Hades. He was the one who was assigned to track down and defeat Death almost a century ago. Death killed him Percy. He was able to stay alive long enough to deliver Death here, but he died almost immediately afterwards."

"Well..." I said slowly. "He didn't have anyone to watch his back. You do. We'll make it out of this."

Nico nodded, and James Wilkins disappeared. Then he cracked a smile, which was good to see. "I figured out why Thanatos was in Vegas. So he could be near Death Valley. Kevorkian was right."

I smiled. "Well what can you say? Death is predictable."

"Oh am I?" asked a chilling voice from behind. I gulped, and saw Nico do the same. We turned slowly. There he stood, the Grim Reaper himself. "Predictable? I don't think so or you would've know I would sneak up behind you."

He swung his scythe in a wide arc at our feet, knocking Nico and I down. He lifted the scythe and swung it downward. I moved back quickly. Even so, the blade caught my arm. Hades had been right. My invulnerability was useless against him. Blood oozed out of the slash. It was painful, but I stood and swung. Again the blade passed through him harmlessly. Death swung at me, but Nico blocked his strike, then followed through with a counter attack.

Death blocked Nico's strike. I came at him from the side and attempted to slice the long handle of the scythe in half. All I accomplished was lodging my blade in the shaft. Death spuntowards me, and I was forced to let go of my sword. He swung down at me. I rolled to the side. The Nico stabbed Death in the back. He howled in pain and spun violently, shaking Nico and his sword loose. Death ran towards Nico. Before he or I could react, Death had swung hard at Nico's head.

"NO!" I yelled.

But then something strange happened. Just before Death's scythe collided with Nico, Nico was enveloped in a strange dark energy. The blade stopped moving an inch from Nico's head.

"No," muttered Death in a timid voice. When Nico stood, I could fully see him. He was coated in a layer of dark purple energy. Just looking at it filled me with terror. Nico was using his father's powers of fear.

Death stumbled backwards. "Please no! Make it stop!"

Nico advanced forward casually.

Death got on his hands and knees and began to beg. "Please no! Don't! I'll come quietly!"

Then Nico stabbed him with his Stygian Iron blade. Death let out a howl, and there was an explosion of dark energy. I shielded my eyes. When I removed my hand from over my eyes, Thanatos had disappeared, and Nico's sword was glowing red-hot. The strange terror field was no gone.

I walked over to him. "Where'd he go?"

He looked at me. "Death? Stygian Iron absorbs the essence of whatever it defeats. Thanatos is inside this blade."

"What was that power?" I asked.

"Pure terror," Nico said. For the first time I saw how exhausted he was. "It acts like my father's helm."

"What was Death so afraid of?" I asked.

"Dying," Nico responded.

Ironic, but a job well done.

VIII

By the time I finally got home it was midnight. I had to briefly explain to my mom what had happened. I told her everything, right up to the part where Nico gave Hades his sword containing Thanatos. In reality, Death had not been the most challenging opponent I had ever faced, though he was definitely the scariest.

I called Annabeth too and assured her that I was okay. She said that we had to go out tomorrow, which I was okay with. I sent Chiron an IM and told him what had happened. Then I went to bed. I was tired. And I hoped that I would get a chance to rest finally. A week off maybe.

Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."

**AN: And thus ends the Halloween Special. I hoped you enjoyed it. Maybe it wasn't terrifying, but I think it was in the Halloween mood.**

**Alright, now for a little challenge. I alluded to the Raven (which you can read at the beginning of the story) several times throughout the rest of the story. Leave me a review telling me three of the ways I alluded to the Raven, excluding the one at the very end. Also in that review give me a name, godly parent, and description of a demigod you created that you would like to see in this story. NOTE: Children of the Big Three are not acceptable, or children of Hera or Artemis. I appologize, but I am trying to keep this canon. **

**Anyway, next time I update I will post the results of those who gave me satisfactory answers and the name only of their demigod. These demigods will be featured in later chapters.**

**Have a Happy Halloween!**


	7. Charlotte

**AN: I'm back! Today was the last day of cross country practice. Not sure if I feel happy or sad about that...**

**Tomorrow is sectionals, my last race of the season. Sniffle. That I am sad about. BUT anyway. I've decided to scrap the whole list how I tied into the Raven because no one could. But the ways were the dream, the taking what the children of Athena said as credible (the raven sat on a bust of Athena), and the mentioning of landing on the plutonian shore, which is used in the Raven. I will continue to accept entries for demigods to add in though. Each chapter I will say a special thanks to their creator.**

**THIS IS IMPORTANT: The deadline for entries is Thanksgiving. If you want to have a character here, get the review in by thanksgiving. One entry per person. WARNING: I may take some liberties, but will stay as true as possible to what you submit. I won't accept children of the Big Three as entries. Sorry, but I am trying to stay canon.**

**Special thanks to SailorSea for the character in this chapter.**

Percy Jackson and the Curse of Echidna

Charlotte

Of course I wasn't about to get a break. Yeah, yeah, I'd just fought Death himself, but it's right back into the action on Monday.

I walked into school the next morning, deep purple bags under my eyes. I had slept poorly last night to say the least. Death may have been turned over to Hades, but he seemed to be trying to torture me in my dreams. The only thing I was looking forward to today was my date with Annabeth. But that was to long to wait for something good. I trudged to homeroom and laid my head on my desk moaning. I was about to fall asleep, when Thalia tugged my head up by my hair.

"Ow, ow, ow," I said. "Stop! Uncle!"

Thalia snorted and let go of my head. It slammed back down onto the desk. "Ow," I moaned.

I sat up and rubbed my eyes. I looked at Thalia. She apparently hadn't gotten the memo that Halloween was over. She wore a purple t-shirt today that said "zombies love to eat brains, even small ones like yours" in slimy green writing. At the bottom was a picture of a tiny brain and a ruler.

She seemed taken aback by the way I looked. "Oh my gods Percy, you look like death!"

"You don't know the half of it," I muttered. "Now, what did you want?"

Thalia looked confused for a moment, then apparently remembered something, probably the reason she yanked up my head in the first place. She reached into her pants pocket and pulled out a small hair clip. "This is why I yanked your head up. Oh, by the way, trick or treat on Olympus sometime, you get lots of candy. But that's beside the point. Demeter gave me this. She said it is a present for her daughter, Charlotte Dempsy. She seems to think that we will have to save her soon."

I groaned. "Today? Really? It couldn't be tomorrow!"

Suddenly a bit-to-cheery voice came over the intercom, Helen. "Will Charlotte Dempsy please report to the main office. Charlotte Dempsy to the main office."

Thalia and I glanced at each other nervously. This wasn't good news. We both raised our hands. Paul came back. I whispered the situation to him hurriedly. He nodded and excused us. Thalia and I were soon out in the hall, bolting towards the main office. We slowed when we heard footsteps up ahead around the corner. Thalia and I peaked. Someone was walking with our back to us. Whoever she was, she had long brown hair. She entered the door to the main office. Thalia and I glanced at each other. Charlotte.

We carefully proceeded to the doors of the main office and peaked into the room through the window on the door. I could see Charlotte a bit better now. She was dressed in a plain white blouse and a skirt that went bellow her knees. A bit too formal for school, so I knew for sure she's related to Demeter. Her eyes were hazel, and her hair seemed to be perfectly strait. I noticed something else. None of her clothes were wrinkled at all. I imagined she was a perfectionist. _Great, just what we need,_ I thought.

Standing next to her was Helen. Her yellow eyes had that strange back-light they always seemed to have. Her brown hair was a couple shades darker than Charlotte's in comparison. She wore blue jeans and a black t-shirt with green writing on it. I had trouble making out what it said, but I'd seen enough of those t-shirts around New York to know what it said. _Wicked_.

_Why not, the witch likes witches_.

Helen and Charlotte seemed to be talking normally, but Helen glanced at the window and I knew instantly that she knew where Thalia and I were. Then Helen led Charlotte to a door in the office. Not the door to Echidna's office, but another door. I wondered what was behind it. As soon as the door closed behind Charlotte, Helen disappeared in a puff of smoke. Thalia and I glanced around nervously, unsure of where she would reappear.

And then Helen materialized, right behind us. "Hello," she said brightly. Thalia and I spun around, our weapons expanding in our hands. "Whoa, easy there," Helen said. I felt a slight tugging to put down my weapon, but that just made me raise the point of Riptide even closer to Helen's neck. "Listen, I'm not the enemy right now," Helen reasoned. "What you two should be worried about is that poor girl in the office. She's alone in a room with a hellhound. I'd say she only has a few moments left, if she's even still alive."

Thalia and I were distracted by that. When our guard was down Helen disappeared in a puff and maniacal laughter. Thalia and I turned and dashed through the door into the main office. No on was there. We ran to the door that Charlotte had entered and yanked it open. The room was dark, with only a couple of weak lights flickering along the walls. The room was huge. I didn't remember one so big connected to the main office.

It was true. Charlotte was on the ground unconscious, with a small hellhound on top of her.

Thalia pulled back her bow string and nailed the beast right between the eyes. It dissolved into black hair and yellow powder. We walked over to check on Charlotte. Unfortunately, we had fallen right into Helen's trap. The door slammed shut behind us. I spun around, but Thalia kept looking forward. It was a good strategy. I'd keep an eye on that side of the room, she'd keep an eye on the other. What we hadn't accounted for was an aerial assault. And that's just what happened.

With a scream a flying beast flew down at us. We just barely ducked in time. I looked into the darkness above, waiting for the next attack. Riptide was ready. Again something swooped down at us. I slashed at it, but I was too slow.

"I'd give up if I were you," a voice boomed. Helen. I didn't know where the voice was coming from. It seemed to come from everywhere at once. "That's the eagle that was assigned by Zeus to pick away at Prometheus. He's an ancient bird, the father of all eagles. A monster unlike any other! He'll never give up."

That seemed true enough as the eagle swooped in for a third pass. This time I got a good look. It was a golden eagle, with a wingspan that was twenty feet long at least. The rest of the bird was proportionally larger too. It's body was bigger than I was. It's talons looked like they were made of metal, it's beak sharp enough to go through just about anything to get at it's target. Probably our livers. And unfortunately, unlike Prometheus, we couldn't just regrow one.

As the eagle made it's fourth pass on us Thalia shot it with an arrow. The eagle screeched, but it sounded more annoyed than hurt. Charlotte moaned on the floor. I bent down to check on her, while Thalia distracted the eagle.

"You okay?" I asked.

Charlotte groaned again. "What's going on? Where am I?"

"Look out!" Thalia screamed.

At the last second I was able to activate my shield. The eagle banged against it, but it didn't break. Tyson had made the third version unable to be dented or lost with some magic, seeing as I had a knack for screwing up the watch.

The eagle's force was enough to send me flying though. I slammed into the wall. The eagle came down towards me. I slashed with Riptide and caught the eagle's left eye. It screeched in pain, but I hadn't knocked it off course. It landed on top of me, it enormity was also very heavy. It spread it's wings to block off my view from the others. It started pecking and scratching at me, but it did no harm. What I was afraid of though was that it would find out where I was vulnerable. It seemed only a matter of time before it figured it out.

Then it just dissolved. Charlotte stood there with an unfamiliar sword. She seemed stunned that I was okay. That bird would have easily diced me if not for my invulnerability.

"You – you should be dead, but you're alive!" she exclaimed.

"That'll happen," I said.

"No it won't, it won't happen," Charlotte said. "That bird should have killed you!"

I shrugged. "It's hard to explain, and here is not the place."

Thalia joined us. "Excellent work Charlotte. You're a natural with that hairpin, er, sword."

Huh? That was weird. Her sword had been replaced with Demeter's hairpin gift. Then I understood. It was a magic sword. That made sense.

We were interrupted by Helen's booming voice. "Congratulations Jackson, you pass my second test."

I gave an obscene gesture to the room as a whole, before I turned and led the way out. It was time to take Charlotte to Camp Half-Blood.

**AN: Again, thanks SailorSea. Next up on my list of demigods is** **Nariek Hyokame's character, Alex Tompson. The rest of you, leave me your demigod in a review. You only have until thanksgiving. So long for now. Next time I write xcountry will be over.**


	8. Alex

**AN: Well, well, well several people want a character in my story. Excellent. I realized, however, that some people (aka people who don't live in the United States) don't know when Thanksgiving is. Well I'll give the specific date. 11/25/10. Cutoff will be the end of the day.**

**As stated last chapter, today I will be using a character submitted by ****Nariek Hyokame. Enjoy the chapter, and thanks Nariek.**

Percy Jackson and the Curse of Echidna

Alex

And I thought Charlotte would be my only save of the week. How wrong I was. I did go most of the week without having to save anyone. But Friday was a whole other story. I was finally fully rested again, and was looking forward to a day of relaxation. That was until 4th period. I was taking a bathroom break. True I hadn't showed up to class yet, and the period had begun ten minutes ago, but I really had to pee. I was about to walk into the bathroom, when Thalia ran up to me. _Oh great,_ I thought.

"What is it Thalia?" I asked. "And can it wait, I've got to pee."

"No it can't wait. I'm sure you can hold it. You are a 'big boy' now. We've got a problem. I was in geometry, when Alex Thompson was pulled out of class by Helen herself."

"Alex Thompson. Who's he?" I asked.

Thalia rolled her eyes. "Alex is a she, Percy. Daughter of Hephaestus."

"Forget I said that," I said, feeling stupid. "And don't mention it to her either. I'd imagine that it wouldn't be taken to kindly. How old is she?"

"She's a freshman, but she's only 13. She was bumped up a grade."

"Smart girl. Sure she's not a daughter of Athena?"

"Positive. Anyway, we've got to find her and Helen. Now. I don't know where they went off too, but it can't be good."

"Why don't we split up?" I said, glancing at the bathroom. "You go that way, and I'll go this way."

"Good idea," Thalia said and ran off.

I quickly slipped into the bathroom. I would look for Alex as soon as I peed.

I bet that Percy had gone into the bathroom as soon as I left the scene, but I had to focus on finding Alex. I dashed down the hall, towards the main office, probably the best place to start.

I walked into the office and looked around. The room was abandoned. I checked the room where we fought the eagle, Echidna's office, and the counselor's offices but I couldn't find anyone at all. The office was completely abandoned. I looked up, because that's what caught us off guard last time. Nothing. So they weren't holding Alex in the office. Then where was she?

I walked over to the door and tried to open it. It was locked. _Okay, that's not normal, _I thought. I spun around. There still wasn't anyone there. I looked all around, my eyes wide, searching for any sign of an enemy. My bow and quiver appeared, just in case. Good thing too, because right at that moment there was a blinding flash of light.

Slowly my vision returned. What I saw was not good at all. There was Helen, holding a knife to the throat of Alex. Alex had fiery orange hair and brown eyes. She wore a black t-shirt with an anvil and hammer. Did she already know she was a daughter of Hephaestus? Her blue jeans had holes in the knees.

Helen was looking especially evil today, what with her yellow eyes glowing extra hard. "Hello Thalia," she said as if we were friends. "How are you today?"

"I'd be better if you weren't holding a Half-Blood against her will!" I snapped back. I was in no mood for witty banter.

Helen shook her head sadly. "Can't really do that. I need some information first. If I don't get it, then Alex will die."

"What do you want?" I snapped back.

"Percy Jackson's Achilles point."

I just about choked. That was quite the demand. I didn't even know where his Achilles point was. And even if I did, I wouldn't have told her. "I don't know. He never told me."

"Shame." Helen pressed the blade of the dagger into Alex's throat. Beads of blood appeared.

"Stop!" I heard from behind me. Percy had appeared out of nowhere. "Let her go."

"Where is your Achilles point?" Helen asked. "Fair tradeoff."

They stared down for a moment. But while Helen was busy with that she didn't notice Alex balling up her fists. She swung her fist backwards into Helen's stomach. Helen dropped the dagger and let out grunt. Alex picked up the dagger and threw it at Helen. Her aim was pretty good, but Helen was too fast. She teleported away, leaving behind the sound of her curses.

Alex walked over to retrieve her dagger. Percy walked up next to me. "Helen is really trying to get my Achilles point now. But why? What does she want with it?"

I rolled my eyes. "Obviously she wants to know where she can hurt you."

"Maybe," Percy said, but he didn't sound convinced. I was about to ask him what he thought, when Alex came over.

"So, what is going on?" she asked briskly. "I want the truth."

"Long story," Percy said. "Chiron will explain back at camp."

Helen appeared in the ruins of Mt. Othrys. Stars shot down overhead, strait to the center of the ruins. Helen made her way slowly, avoiding the wrecked walls. When she finally got to the center, she saw two figures. There was Atlas, struggling to hold up the sky. A bit away from him was a half destroyed throne. On it sat a half formed figure. The head of the figure was a lump, from which could only be seen a pair of white eyes. The person's skin was midnight black, dotted all over with stars. He had only one arm, and no legs at all. The shooting stars gathered around the throne, and were absorbed into the man.

Helen walked forward and bowed at his feet, waiting for him to speak. Speak he did. "Helen, you have come. How does your mission go?"

"Not well Master Krios. Percy Jackson is still very much invulnerable. I am getting closer to completing the potion that will allow Echidna to take it away by cursing him, but I'm still missing one important ingredient. His weak point."

"Is that all? You know, I'd have thought you'd have figured it out by now. Manipulate him by threatening his loved ones."

"Who, the Thalia girl? She's a hunter, they are merely friends."

"I don't refer to the hunter girl."

Krios held out his one hand and an image, like an Iris-message appeared. In it was an image. It seemed relatively recent. Percy was at a restaurant with a beautiful blond girl, with gray eyes. They were talking and laughing. The image spun for a bit, and then they were kissing. She looked vaguely familiar to Helen.

"Who is she?"

Krios made an amused sound. "I thought you'd remember her. She did go with you to that wretched camp. Annabeth."

Helen's eyes widened. "The daughter of Athena!"

"The same," Krios said. "Now go. Formulate a plan. Oh, and Helen, I must say that I am disappointed. Your Roman counterpart did her job already. As we speak, Jason Grace journeys to bring me what I need from him. Of course he doesn't know he's doing it for me, but still. Now leave me."

Helen backed out slowly, despising her Roman counterpart.

**AN: And so ends that chapter. Who is Helen's Roman counterpart? What is Jason doing that will benefit Krios? What is Helen going to do to Annabeth? Why am I asking you these questions?**

**Next chapter is going to be a numbered chapter. At least two characters left in reviews to me will be used, maybe more. Anyway, until next time. **


	9. Chapter 3

**AN: Alright well here I a with the next numbered chapter. Yay! So, anyway, in this chapter there will be three demigods that were entered by you, the reader. In this chapter I am featuring demigods by , DaughterofPoseidon94, and person127. Thank you, all three of you for your entries. Others who entered can rest assured that their demigods will be in the story too, but for now, onward!**

Percy Jackson and the Curse of Echidna

Chapter 3

Several weeks and twenty demigods later I was run ragged. I was getting hardly any sleep, my hair had grown so long that the bangs hung low in my eyes and in the back my hair was down to the base of my neck. I was also pretty sure that I had worn the same clothes two days in a row now, but I wasn't completely sure. Thalia was pretty bad too. Even though she was immortal, she was taking the stress and hard work badly. The deep purple bags under her eyes showed that she was getting just as little sleep as I was, if not less. She was getting noticeably thinner, like she was having trouble eating. She always had a wild light in her eyes, like she was always looking for monsters. Our only consolation was that we were just over halfway done.

Eventually the swimming season ended, so I had no sport to occupy my time. That was fine by me, more time to rest. At least that's what I thought. It turned out that sports were one of the only things that I had to distract me from the stress of saving all those demigods. I was seeing Annabeth almost every day now, visiting her on Olympus or taking her out to eat, just to escape from it all. I think she could tell how much pressure I was under, and tried to keep the conversation away from school, which I was grateful for. Eventually though, even spending time with Annabeth didn't help much. And it didn't help that almost every day Helen tried to find a new way to discover my weak point. I was beginning to see why it was such a curse, being invulnerable.

And on top of it all, for some strange reason I was seeing strange similarities between myself and Kronos. I wondered what that was about, but I didn't have much time to ponder it. Except at night. Every night I dreamed of _me_ being Kronos's host, and _Luke_ in my position. It was driving me crazy. Every day I got more and more short tempered, eventually yelling at my parents for no reason. I almost made my mom cry, which made me feel really bad. I had immediately apologized.

"I understand why you yelled at me Percy," my mom had said. "You're killing yourself. Take a break. Please. For me."

"I really wish I could," I had told her, "but I have a job to do. I can't just back out now."

So there I was on Saturday, collapsed on a park bench in Central Park, half asleep, next to Annabeth. She was stroking my arm slowly and telling me all about the work she'd been doing on Olympus. I was just finally dozing off, when Annabeth's phone rang.

"Hello?" she answered. After a pause she turned to me. "It's for you." Her expression was confused, like she didn't know who it was, why they wanted to talk to me, and how they got her number. I shrugged to indicate that I didn't know, then took the phone.

"Hello?"

"Hello, Jackson," a voice said. Unfortunately I recognized the voice.

"Helen," I growled. "What in Hades do you want?"

"Well Jackson, I thought I'd give you some news about your friend Thalia. She's under attack from a couple of Cyclopes over in Brooklyn. Apparently she's trying to protect a few demigods that go to our school. I'd go help her. She's fighting a losing battle."

"It's a trap isn't it?" I asked. Then I repeated it, louder, "Isn't it!"

Helen just chuckled. "Well you'll just have to find out now won't you? In case you show up, they're down by Hunters Point. Ironic isn't it? Well I hope you have a good rest of the day with your girlfriend Jackson. So long."

Helen hung up. I scowled and handed the phone back to Annabeth. "Thalia is in trouble. It's probably a trap, but I've got to go help her."

I stood to go. Annabeth did too. "I coming with you Seaweed Brain."

"Annabeth-"

"I'm coming with you," she said more forcefully. "Besides, if it's a trap, you'll need the brains of Athena to get out of it. Now let's get to your car, hmm?"

I sighed, then nodded. "Yeah. We better hurry."

"Hurry" was probably not the best word to use for New York City traffic. I drove Paul's Prius through nauseating midday traffic. Luckily it was a warm day, for November, so Annabeth and I were able to roll down the windows and enjoy the fresh air. As much as we could enjoy anything with our friend in trouble.

When we finally arrived at Hunters Point, we saw a lone figure, dressed in black, fainted on the ground. It was Thalia. Annabeth and I ran over to her. We managed to shake her awake. She was only awake for a few seconds, and all she said was, "Run."

The warning came too late. There was a flash, and everything dissolved.

When vision returned to me, I saw that I was in a stadium of some kind. It looked vaguely familiar, then I realized why. It was the school's basketball court. Most of the lights were turned off, except for one light that shined directly on me. Then I heard a booming voice over the speakers. This was a voice I recognized. But it wasn't Helen. It was Echidna.

"Welcome Percy Jackson," she said. "I was getting tired of you interfering, and of Helen's inability to convince the school board to expel you, so I've decided that Helen and I are going to take matters into our own hands."

Then all the lights flickered on. Standing at the other end of the room was Helen, and in front of her were three unconscious girls. Two of them looked about thirteen and the other looked my age. Siting in the stands, bound and gagged were Thalia and Annabeth; insurance that I did what I was told. "What am I supposed to do?"

Echidna and Helen both laughed. My eyes darted around, but I couldn't find where Echidna was. "Easy," Echidna explained. "You are going to battle Helen's three puppets. Yes those three are her puppets. You must battle each of them to the death, or your friend and girlfriend will die."

I gulped. If my assumptions were right, I wouldn't be able to get to Annabeth and Thalia. I decided to try. As expected I ran into some kind of invisible barrier. _Great,_ I thought. I looked at the three girls on the floor. They were probably demigods. I could kill them with celestial bronze, but I was going to kill anyone. There had to be another answer...

Before I could think any further, a bell rang. Helen extended her hands, and tendrils of white energy shot out from her and attached themselves to key points on one of the girls' bodies. It was one of the ones that looked about thirteen. She stood, and I got my first good look at her. She was definitely on the short side, with long pale blond hair, that was almost white. Her eyes flickered open, but they were the unnatural shade of Helen's eyes. She wore a neon shirt, skinny jeans and those boots that a lot of girls wore. What were they called? Uggs, I think. They were black. On her arm she had a bunch of those rubber band bracelets shaped like animals, silly bands I think. I knew just by looking at her that she was probably a nice kid. She didn't deserve this.

"Meet Sunraye Lynn," Echidna called over the mic. "She's a daughter of Apollo. Let round one, begin!"

The girl ran forward on Helen's command, grabbing a bow and some arrows from a nearby rack on the way. She pulled back the bow and shot with deadly accuracy. I caught the arrow on my arm. It smashed harmlessly against my skin. I drew my sword as the girl got close. With a perfectly timed slice, I cut her bow in half, then elbowed her in the stomach. She stumbled backwards, then I shot towards Helen. Apparently Helen herself couldn't move when she was acting as the puppet master. Her eyes were closed, indicating that she was seeing through the eyes of the girl, Sunraye. Sunraye chased after me, but I was too fast. I got within range of Helen, then slashed my sword. She was forced to break the puppet hold and teleport away from my blade. I missed her by inches.

Instantly, Sunraye collapsed to the floor, moaning. Helen reappeared, and forced her will upon the next girl, the other thirteen year old. Echidna spoke over the mic. "Not how I wanted round one to go. Let's try that again in round two. Percy versus Zaria!"

I looked my next puppet opponent over. She was tall for a thirteen year old. Her hair was long, curly and a red brown mix. She wore a bright, and I mean _bright_, orange t-shirt with jeans and high boots. A dark hoodie lay on the floor where she had been lying. I figured it was to counteract the brightness of the t-shirt. She wore a bracelet with wing charms. Her eyes were also like Helen's. Helen had her pick up a spear.

This might be a little harder. She would probably keep me pretty busy with that spear, so I wouldn't be able to get to Helen as quickly. Puppet-Zaria advanced on me, and thrust forward. I backed up to avoid the spear point, then swung my sword. She blocked with her spear point, then swung at my legs, trying to knock me down. I leaped in the air and landed on her spear. She tried to pull it out from underneath my feet, but I was too heavy.

Puppet-Zaria looked up at me. Then she did something unexpected. She let go of her spear, and reached around behind me, punching my shoulder blade. I heard a crack. I think I knew what Helen was doing. She was playing minesweeper with my weak point. Luckily, my shoulder blade was not that point. I pushed Puppet-Zaria over, then reached down and grabbed her spear. I threw it at Helen. Again Helen teleported away just in time.

Zaria collapsed to the ground, moaning. I turned and looked at the third girl, who Helen was already possessing. She was about my age I guess, with long black hair, that was in a high pony tale, with the bangs loose. She was shorter than I was by quite a bit. I guessed she was maybe 5 foot 2. She wore a black and dark blue v-neck shirt, dark blue jeans, and black combat boots. She wore a necklace with a blue stone attached to it.

"Well Jackson," Echidna growled, clearly angry that I hadn't killed either of the others. "You defeated the sunrise goddess's child. Congratulations. But now beat Daniela, the daughter of Nyx, the goddess of night."

All the lights flicked out. The only light came from the glow of my sword. I turned constantly, my eyes wide. Great, defeat a child of the night, in total darkness. Just great.

Suddenly I saw yellow eyes, looming out of the darkness. I raised my sword just as the puppet's sword swung at me. I blocked, then countered. In the total darkness, the girl was pretty good, even with no formal training, She spun around, slashing and hacking, and I blocked every strike, not giving Helen a chance to figure out where my weak point was. The girl spun around me, and slashed at my back. I think I may have blocked with just a little too much ferocity there. Helen smiled through Daniela's lips. Now she constantly tried attacking my back, at different spots. I had to force myself to defend everywhere on my back equally. It was really hard, especially since Daniela got really close a couple of times.

I fought on though. Then I decided that I'd had enough. I used the disarming technique Luke had taught me. Daniela's sword skittered away from her. _I sidestepped and jabbed under Kronos's guard. It was a good trick. Unfortunately, Luke knew it. He countered the strike and disarmed me using one of the first moves he'd ever taught me. My sword skittered across the ground and fell straight into the open fissure. _I suddenly had a massive headache. What was happening to me? Why was I seeing these similarities between myself and Kronos? Daniela ran into the blinding darkness.

I tried listening for her, but the pain in my head was too great. I was afraid that she'd get me from behind and actually get my weak spot. Instead, the lights flickered back on. Daniela stood with her sword at Annabeth's throat. I surged forward, but the puppet spoke with Helen's voice. "Don't move another inch, Jackson, or your girlfriend dies. Now tell me, where is your weak point?"

My head raced, my eyes darted back and forth. My eyes caught Annabeth's, who shook her head ever so slightly to tell me not to do it. But I didn't see any other option. Then I saw Thalia. She sat unnoticed behind Daniela and Annabeth. She was slowly freeing herself from the ropes that bound her. A silent plan was formulated between the three of us.

My part was to keep Helen/Daniela busy. "Why are you so determined to find my weak point? I don't think it's just to kill me. I spotted Helen off to the right, her eyes closed. She opened her mouth and spoke, but the noise came out of Daniela's mouth.

"You are right Jackson. But I will not tell you why yet. No. _I_ am not the one who is destined to kill you. Your death has already been guaranteed to one of Lord Krios's other servants."

"Then why do you want it?" Thalia's hands were now free. She started working on her feet.

"I already said that I'm not going to tell you Jackson," Helen/Daniela said. "So don't bother asking."

Thalia was completely unbound now. She counted down on her fingers. _3, 2, 1. Now!_ She grabbed Daniela's arm, forcing her to move the sword away from Annabeth. At the same instant Annabeth elbowed Daniela. And I, I threw my sword, right at Helen. It went spiraling through the air, a perfect shot. Helen was forced to teleport away, releasing her grip on Daniela, who promptly dropped to the ground and fainted.

Echidna cursed over the mic, but then Helen came over, "That is all. You may all go. Congratulations Jackson, you passed another test." Then the mic switched off, and Annabeth, Thalia and I were left alone with three fainted demigods. I ran to Annabeth and kissed her. When we broke apart I said, "I was so worried."

"I know," Annabeth said. She leaned towards me and we kissed again. Thalia interrupted by clearing her throat.

"I hate to break this up love birds, but the others are waking up," she said.

Thalia was right. First, the girl Sunraye woke up. Her eyes flickered open. They were sky blue. I wrapped my arm around Annabeth's waist and we walked over to Sunraye. "Where am I?" she asked. "What's going on?"

"Your in the school's basketball court," I said. "As to what's going on, that'll take a long time. Your name is Sunraye right?"

The girl glared at me. "I _hate_ that name, got it?"

"Sorry," I apologized quickly, raising my free hand in surrender. "I didn't know. What would you prefer I called you?"

"Raye," the girl said. "Raye Lynn. What's your name?"

"I'm Percy," I explained. "This is Annabeth." I pointed over my shoulder and added, "And that's Thalia."

"Guys," Thalia said. "Zaria is waking up."

"Zaria is here?" Raye asked. She darted over to where the girl Zaria lay. When her eyes flickered open they were a deep purple color. A strange color for eyes, I thought, as Annabeth and I joined Raye and Thalia.

"What's going on?" she asked.

"Hi Zaria," Raye said. "You okay?"

"Yeah," Zaria muttered. She sat up slowly. "What happened? The last thing I remember is seeing that announcer girl, Helen."

"Yeah, that's the last thing I remember too," Raye said.

We heard moaning. Thalia, Annabeth and I went to where Daniela lay while Raye and Zaria chatted. Daniela sat up, and her eyes fluttered open. At first I thought her eyes were black, then I realized that they were a dark blue color.

She glared at us. For a moment, I felt incredibly like Kronos when she looked at me, but the feeling passed. "Why am I in the basketball court? And who are you people?"

We told her what we'd told the other two, then did our best to explain about the Greek gods. Then came the difficult task of getting my car, and getting to camp.

Helen led an irate Echidna back to her office. "He didn't kill any of them! And for what? We didn't even find out where his weak point is!"

Helen sat Echidna down behind her desk and said, "No but we did make progress. I now know that his weak point is in his lower back. That narrows down the search by quite a bit. Now listen. We will get the job done, but _you_ need to stop thinking you're the boss, because Lord Krios put _me_ in charge here. Got it?"

When Echidna wouldn't stop complaining, Helen slapped her across the face. "Get a hold of yourself! Today was a victory for us, whether Jackson knows it or not! Jason Grace from the Roman Camp defeated the Trojan sea monster earlier today. He is bringing the skin of it back to our counterparts as we speak. It won't be long before the final trap for _him_ is laid, then all we'll have to worry about is Jackson. Now stop your whining. I will ensure that the next two school weeks are hell for him. Then we can unleash the final thrust."

That night I dreamed that I was in the throne room of the Olympians. I was standing in front of my father's throne. The fire in the middle of the room flickered weakly. The stars overhead glowed bright. Then a shimmering golden form appeared in front of me. It was of a muscular man dressed in Greek war armor, with long hair and a long beard. He held Kronos's scythe.

"Percy Jackson," he said, with Kronos's voice. I realized that it was Kronos, his spirit anyway, separated from Luke. "You will not be able to face the challenges that Krios will send your way. And if you do, you will be forced to fight like me, with trickery and cunning."

"Never," I growled.

Kronos laughed. "We'll see Jackson."

I woke up in a cold sweat.

**AN: Well that was exciting, yes? One last thing to say, If you submitted a weapon with your demigod, it will be used in a later chapter, not the chapter they are introduced in.**

**Who could Helen's counterpart be? What are they going to do with Jason? Why is Percy having to deal with the spirit of Kronos? When will the "curse" mentioned in the title be used? You'll just have to wait and see.**


	10. Callidora

**AN: Sorry it has taken so long to update. School got in the way of things. Anyway, I am back, and will hopefully have book 1 done by the new year. In this chapter I am including the submitted character, Callidora Fawn, submitted by iBallloonX. Thanks for the character.**

Percy Jackson and the Curse of Echidna

Callidora

The following Monday, after a weekend of almost no sleep, I stumbled into school, almost tripping over crumbs on the floor. I was killing myself, and I knew it. But nonetheless, I came into school. Mom had suggested that I stay home, but I knew I couldn't, not with the chance of something happening. Well it was good I came to school after all.

I was walking down the hall in between first and second period. Thalia was walking next to me. Over the weekend she had gotten worse too, though there was now a noticeable difference in our conditions. I was obviously the one in worse shape.

Anyway we were walking down the hall, yawning and spreading our doom and despair tired attitudes to everyone around us. You know how teenagers aren't morning people? Well Thalia and I had become no time people, always irritable, always on the edge of falling asleep. While we were walking down the hall, I saw something, and didn't think anything of it until second period began. A girl with long auburn hair was looking around worried. It wasn't until second period began that I gave it any thought.

_Who was that girl? Could she have possibly been a demigod? No not likely. What were the chances of that?_

Yet for some reason, I kept thinking about it. Finally, to resolve my conscious, I asked the teacher if I could go to the bathroom. I took the hall pass and went to where I had seen the girl. I looked around, staring at the empty hall. I yawned, my eyes closing as I did. When I opened them the spirit of Kronos stood in front of me.

_Hail the conquering hero,_ he spoke in my mind. An ironic smile danced across the spirit's lips. _If the day that you fulfilled the prophecy you were in _this_ condition, I would have won the war._

"Shut up," I told him. "You're just a figment of my over-tired imagination, nothing more."

The golden form laughed. _If only that were true. Well so long young hero. Enjoy the rest of your day at school._

I blinked, and the image of Kronos was gone. I took a few deep breaths, trying to calm myself. It was my imagination. I leaned against the wall. I needed to rest. Maybe if I just sat for a bit...

And suddenly I was dreaming. I saw the girl that I had seen earlier glancing around nervously, exactly as I had seen her earlier. I was able to get a better look at the girl this time. She had long auburn hair that flowed freely down her back. Her eyes were a cerulean color. She was about five foot eight maybe. She wore one of those one shouldered tunic tops and short shorts made from denim. She wore leather ankle boots and earrings shaped like doves.

She walked down the hall, passing by Thalia and I. I heard a guy call out, "Hey Callidora!"

She turned. Running up to her was an Asian guy with dark hair, wearing a plain blue t-shirt and jeans.

The girl, whose name was apparently Callidora, said, "Not now Mike."

"Mike" looked slightly deflated. When Callidora kept walking, he caught up to her and kept walking. "What's bothering you?"

"Nothing," Callidora muttered.

"Is someone picking on you?" Mike asked. "Don't worry, I'll take care of them."

He made fake boxing motions, making a fist completely wrong, by the way. Callidora actually laughed. But then the joy faded from her face. "It's just... Last night, I got a letter in the mail... from my mom..."

Mike looked quizzical. "I thought you said you didn't know your mom?"

"I don't! But she sent me this letter. It had these earrings in it. It said all the stuff you'd expect, 'I miss you', 'Sorry I've never talked to you before', stuff like that. But the weirdest thing was, at the very bottom it said, 'Watch for Percy Jackson.' What could that mean?"

At the mention of my name Mike's eyes had flickered yellow. When Callidora looked up at him, his eyes were normal again. "I don't know." The bell rang. "But come with me. I have a friend that I think could help."

I snapped awake. I glanced at the clock. I'd only been asleep for a couple of minutes, but something made sense to me now. That girl had been looking for me. Her mom was a Greek goddess, and had been trying to point her in the right direction: to safety. And I knew something else. That Mike kid was being possessed by Helen, and he had probably led Callidora right into some trap. Some trap that I'd have to enter myself if I was to save another demigod.

But first I was going to get help. I ran to the class Thalia was in, and told her teacher that Mrs. E. had asked to see Thalia. She was excused. As we walked I told Thalia about my dream. She nodded and said that Callidora Fawn was the name of a daughter of Aphrodite on the list.

We went straight to the main office and walked to the announcer's desk, where Helen sat. She looked up as we approached. "Percy, Thalia, to what do I owe this pleasure?"

"You know damn well what you owe the pleasure to," Thalia snapped. "Where's the girl? Where's Callidora Fawn?"

Helen laughed. "That's why you're here? On another rescue mission? I'm afraid you're too late. You see, Callidora is having a conversation with Mrs. E. If you were to try to defeat Mrs. E, then the evidence needed to have you expelled would be her word. And trust me, the principal swearing two students attacked her is quite enough to get you expelled. We both know that by 'expelled' I mean fed to Chimera."

Thalia and I looked at each other. _Great,_ I thought. _Just perfect._

But what could we do? _We_ couldn't risk the safety of the other demigods by bursting in there to save one, but then again we couldn't just leave Callidora. How could we pull this one off. Unless...

"Fine," I said gritting my teeth, a plan already formulating in my head. I guess Annabeth was rubbing off on me. "Let's go, Thalia."

Thalia stared at me, wide eyed. "What are you saying Jackson!"

I sent her the tiniest wink to let her know I had a plan, making sure Helen couldn't see it. "There's nothing we can do."

Thalia nodded grimly, but sent a small wink back my way. We backed out of the office, Helen smiling the whole time. Once outside the office, Thalia whipped towards me and asked, "What's the brilliant plan Percy?"

But I was too busy patting my pockets for drachmas. _Damn,_ I thought. _Out._ "Drachmas! Thalia I need a drachma!"

She pulled one out of her pocket and handed it to me. "This is my only one. But I don't really see what this accomplishes."

But I was already running down the hall. I slashed apart a water fountain. The spray splashed everywhere, making a rainbow. I said the required lines. Then I had to say the person and destination. This was our only drachma. He could be one of two places right now, and I only had one shot. "Uh, Nico di Angelo, uh... Camp Half-Blood?" The last bit was more of a question really. I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best. I was lucky. Nico's form came into focus, standing outside his cabin, facing away from me.

"Nico!" I yelled.

He spun, and his eyes widened when he saw Thalia and I. "Percy, Thalia? What's going on? Shouldn't you two be in class?"

"No time," I said. "We need you to come to the school. Now."

"What's going on?"

"Now!" Thalia growled. "No time to explain zombie boy!"

Nico rolled his eyes, but he nodded, then waved his hand through the image, dissolving it. Next thing I knew, there he was, standing in front of us in the flesh. "What?" he asked.

"Nice trick, zombie lad," Thalia muttered.

"So it's lad now, is it?" Nico asked. "I thought it was zombie boy."

Thalia was about to make some withering comeback, but I stepped between them. "Stop. Nico, we need your help." I explained our situation and my plan. Nico nodded slowly. "Makes sense. But I'm swordless. My sword is still being used as Thanatos's prison."

"You won't need a sword to cause a good distraction," I said. "Just follow the plan. Get Echidna and Helen to chase you, then just shadow travel back to camp. With luck Thalia and I will be there later with Callidora."

Nico nodded. "Alright. Okay, I'll do it. Be ready."

We followed Nico down the hall and hid in the janitor's closet across from the main office. I heard Nico running, yelling insults, and two people chasing him. My plan had worked!

Thalia and I slipped out of the closet, and into the office. Echidna's door stood wide open, and Helen was gone too. We peeked into Echidna's office. Sitting slumped over in a chair was the same girl from before, Callidora. She was bound and gagged. Thalia and I rushed forward and ungagged her. She stirred feebly. She muttered one word, that I was barely able to make out, "Trap."

I spun towards the door as it slammed shut. I could hear it lock. Then the room started filling with a strange greenish gas. So much for my perfect plan.

Thalia pulled her shirt up over her nose and mouth, I did the same. I unwadded the makeshift gag Callidora had had, and held the clothe over her nose and mouth. "Thalia," I said, my voice muffled by my shirt, "hold this clothe, I'll try to bust the door down."

She nodded and came over. The gas was now at waist level, and already I was breathing in some of it. I was feeling light headed. I sprinted at the door, slamming into it with my shoulder. I heard a loud crack, but nothing gave way. I tried again. Same result. And again. Nothing. By the fifth time, I was nearly unconscious. But I slammed into the door. The wood gave way and the door came down. The strange gas poured into the empty office and dissipated. I dragged myself up, letting my light headedness go away.

Thalia staggered out of the office, dragging an unconscious Callidora. "No time to rest Jackson, we have to leave. Nico's probably gone already. Echidna and Helen will be back soon." She said the words like she was forcing them out. She probably felt the same as I did. Whatever the gas had been, it was nasty stuff.

I nodded and pushed the window open. Thalia and I took Callidora to Paul's Prius. I hope he didn't mind taking the subway home. As we buckled her in, she woke back up. "Who are you?"

"Percy Jackson," I said.

She got a puzzled look on her face. "You're the one my mom wanted me to find?"

I nodded. "I guess so."

"How do you know her?"

I glanced at Thalia. "Long story. We'll explain on the way."

Helen and Echidna walked back into the office irritable. That demigod had gotten away. They were in for a worse surprise when they discovered Echidna's office door busted down.

Echidna growled, and went to her office to check, but Helen knew what had happened. They'd been duped by Percy Jackson. Not pleasing at all. But no matter. Helen's plan was still right on schedule. All she had to do was make sure Percy's next nine days were a living hell.


	11. Shifa

**AN: Sorry this has taken so long. As you can see this wasn't done by New years. You see, I lost my notes for this story. I apologize. But I found them again, and am back in business. For this chapter I would like to thank Maiden-of-the-midnight-moon for submitting the character.**

Percy Jackson and the Curse of Echidna

Shifa

The next day I walked into school still a little light headed from the gas. I napped right through my first three periods in the nurse's office. I needed it. When my eyes fluttered open I saw a girl looking over me with wavy black hair, tan middle eastern skin, andfacial features that I somehow recognized as Persian. The girl surprised me.

"Whoa!" I yelled. Then I knocked my head against the wall. "Ow."

The girl winced. "Sorry, I didn't mean to disturb you."

"That's okay, I should probably get to class anyway. But uh, why were you staring at me while I slept?"

She blushed. "Well I could tell you were suffering from lack of sleep. I have the ability to sense it whenever someone has a medical problem. I could tell you have a bad case of sleep deprivation. You and that girl."

I looked to where she pointed. There was Thalia, passed out on one of the nurse's other beds. "I didn't know Thalia was in here too. Oh well, I must have been asleep." I looked back at the girl. "Who are you anyway?"

"I'm Shifa Blake," she introduced. "I am learning medicine from the nurse, because I want to be a doctor someday."

"I see..." As I said that I pulled out the copy of the list of names Thalia had given me. Shifa Blake...

I found her near the bottom. Her godly parent was the god of medicine and healing, Ascelepius. Funny, I thought that was one of Apollo's things. Ah well, I'd figure that out later. The point was I had found another of the demigods, and I had to get her out of there before Helen and Echidna discovered her too.

"Thalia!" I snapped across the room. Thalia jerk awake with a battle yell, swinging her fists. I was glad I had stayed where I was when I woke her up. "Get over here!"

"I was sleeping well Jackson, what is it?" she asked when she got over.

"Thalia meet Shifa," I said. "Shifa, this is my friend, Thalia."

They said hi to each other, then Thalia went back to glaring at me. "Look," I explained, "she's one of the fifty. Let's get her out of here before Helen or Echidna find out."

Thalia stared at Shifa. "She's one of the fifty?"

I nodded. "Yeah. Now let's go, quickly. I don't feel like dealing with Helen."

"What are you guys talking about?" Shifa asked.

"We'll explain on the way," Thalia and I said at the same time. We'd said it so much recently that it was becoming cliche. Yes I do know what cliche means.

Anyway, we almost made it too. Except Helen was waiting by my car. How the hell did she know? She was smiling widely as she leaned against Paul's Prius. She wore a plain black t-shirt and jeans, but the sword she held distinguished her.

"Hello," she said. "Shifa, why would you go with two people you don't even know? Weren't you ever told not to trust strangers? Get back to your class, I'll give these two a detention and talk to the school board about expulsion for trying to kidnap a student."

I drew my sword. "Don't listen to her Shifa. If she were looking out for your interests would she have a sword?"

"You have one!" Shifa said.

I cursed under my breath. "I only drew it for defense, Helen had her's out before we even got here."

Helen rolled her eyes. "I had my sword out because as soon as I knew you were trying to abduct a student, I knew I had to stop you, possibly by force."

Thalia's spear extended in her hand. "That's a load of bull shit! Don't listen to her Shifa! She'll have you killed or tortured or something!"

"I am here for you," Helen said. Her voice sounded different somehow. I almost wanted to believe her myself. "Go back into the school. These strangers are nothing but bad news."

"Well..." Shifa was looking convinced by what Helen had said. Whatever she was doing, it was affecting Shifa's judgement.

"Don't listen to her!" Thalia and I yelled.

"These two are speaking nonsense!" Helen yelled back.

We argued back and forth. Shifa gripped her head like she was having a headache. Finally she seemed to have had enough. "SHUT UP! I'm trying to think!" Somehow, all three of us shut up. She closed her eyes and tilted her head as if she were hearing something through an earpiece. She opened her eyes and gazed strait ahead. When she spoke, all of us listened. "I heard a voice. It claimed to be my father. He said... He said not to trust Helen!"

I smirked. Helen scowled. "Have it your way then. We'll do this the hard way!"

She ran forward and tried to stab Shifa. She flinched, but I had already knocked Helen's blade out of it's path. Thalia circled behind and tried to stab her. Helen spun and kicked Thalia square in the chest, causing her to stumble, but that left Helen vulnerable to my attack. I swung at her neck, but she managed to limbo under my sword just in time. She then swung her sword around towards my back. I would've been a goner based on the trajectory, but Thalia's spear intercepted the swing.

Clouds were gathering in the sky. Both Thalia and I smiled at this. My next strike was easily blocked by Helen though, as was Thalia's, and we both only narrowly avoided her attacks. We were tired still, and couldn't summon the energy to fight our best. Helen knew this, and she picked up the pace, hoping to stop us before the inevitable storm. She knew that if it started storming, there'd be rain to help me, and lightning to help Thalia. She was too tired to summon her own lightning bolt, but if there already were some she could just redirect them.

Unfortunately, we barely managed to survive until the storm started. Shifa was healing Thalia, who had a nasty gash across her arm, And I was left alone, frantically blocking all of Helen's attempts to get me in the back. But finally I heard thunder. Then it started to drizzle. Then to rain. And soon we had a downpour. I was revitalized with the water. I stabbed at Helen. She tried to get away with one of her standard teleports, but I used the water to stop her. She barely managed to avoid my blade as a result.

Then I gathered a wall of raindrops in front of me and blasted it towards her. She stumbled backwards. Then Thalia stood, gripping her spear in her good arm and yelled, "ZEUS!" A bolt of lightning flashed across the sky, down the shaft of her spear, and strait into Helen. Since she was wet the power of the shock was magnified, and she was blasted into Paul's car, leaving yet another dent to go with the ones Blackjack had left. But Helen's eye's were closed, and steam came up from her clothes. We tentatively approached.

"Is she dead?" Shifa asked in a small, frightened voice.

But then Helen's yellow eyes flickered open, and she laughed. Before I could use the water to stop her, she had teleported away, leaving behind the words, "See you tomorrow Jackson and Grace!"

Thalia and I looked at each other grimly, then put away our weapons. Shifa really had down a good job on her arm. It was wrapped in a makeshift splint of tree bark and clothe. I looked at Shifa. "Nice splint."

She gave a small smile. "It was all I had to work with. Really, she needs more. We should go in to see the nurse."

"No," Thalia said. "Helen probably went back inside. We'll get Chiron to fix me up back at camp."

Shifa looked confused. "Camp? What camp? Which reminds me, what is going on?"

"We'll explain on the way," Thalia and I said simultaneously, repeating the cliche again.

**AN: Thanks for waiting everyone. I do apologize. And thanks for the character, Maiden-of-the-midnight-moon.**


	12. Derek

**AN: Hello, I am back. Finally. As one reviewer so aptly put it "how long is a weekend?" Yes I broke my promise, but I've had a lot of things on my plate lately, what with prom, two major projects, track starting up again, and so on. Add to that my terrible procrastination and you get one really delayed chapter. But I am back now! Sadly, this will probably be a shorter chapter, but we are fast approaching the climax, I assure you. I feel really bad about the wait, and hope to make up for it by updating more rapidly. But, then again, you know me, breaking those promises, so I apologize in advance.**

**I would like to thank Krazzeekman for this chapter's featured character.**

Derek

Wednesday. Half way through the dreadful week. I was ready for it to end right then and there. I was practically asleep as I walked to class. Thalia was next to me. Chiron had managed to heal her up completely (with the help of some ambrosia), so her arm was back to normal. But still, she needed rest too. It was increasingly obvious who was getting less sleep, though. While she could rest peacefully at night, I had no such luxury. Every night, my dreams were plagued by Kronos.

While at lunch neither of us ate, but lay our heads on the table, trying to sleep. That was until we were woken by yelling.

"What the hell is your problem Derek!" It was one of the basketball players. He was tall, and muscular. I couldn't remember his name very well, but I'd think of it.

The kid he was yelling at was... well I couldn't really think of a way to describe him besides – emo. Either that or he was one of those kids that dressed emo, but wasn't really. Either way, he didn't look much next to the basketball player. The Derek kid had black hair, with red bangs hanging down into his face. He wore some creepy contacts that turned his eyes red. He wore a black hoodie with the sleeves ripped off, and must have been wearing some kind of tank top underneath, or else the sleeves of his shirt would have been visible. On his wrist he wore a watch which stuck out on his skin. He didn't exactly look weak, but compared to the basketball player he didn't stand a chance.

I put my head back on the table to go back to sleep. I didn't need to watch a fight. Thalia yanked me up by the back of my head. "Percy! That Derek kid is a son of Athena. We have to stop that fight from starting!"

I looked skeptically at Derek. "Son of Athena? He looks emo to me."

Thalia smacked me. "Percy! This is serious. He really is a son of Athena. And emo is derogatory."

I rolled my eyes. "Well I'm not going to go around calling him source of joy and happiness now am I?"

"Trust me on this Percy, he is a son of Athena. I received a special message about him from Athena. His sister died a few years ago. It had to have some kind of emotional impact on him. We have to stop this fight from happening, it could scar him even worse."

"Yeah? And when Helen finds out we've been helping the kid, then she'll go after him, and monsters are worse than human bullies! I say let him fight his own mortal battles. We can help him with the monster fighting when the time comes."

At precisely this moment Derek was slammed down on our table, causing Thalia and I to leap up in alarm. "Hey!" Thalia yelled. "Let go of the kid!"

"Or what?" the boy sneered. I remembered his name now. James.

"Or this!" Thalia grabbed his arm and twisted it behind his back painfully. "If I move your arm another inch, then it will break.

James whimpered. "Please. Uncle! It hurts! It hurts!"

"Leave Derek alone," Thalia said threateningly.

"Okay, I will, I will," he muttered.

Thalia let him go. James bolted as fast as he could. She turned to Derek. "Are you okay?"

He frowned at her. "I didn't need your help. Nor did I ask for it. I can handle myself."

I strode over smirking. "Told you so."

Thalia hissed a shh at me as Derek spoke again. "Your that Jackson kid right? I don't want your opinion on the matter either. Please, just leave me alone. I didn't need, or want help."

With that he left. "Your welcome," Thalia called after him angrily. She got no response. "I helped him!" She rounded on me angrily. "I helped him, and what does he say? I didn't want you to help, go away! The nerve of that kid! I should've let him fight on his own!"

"He would've if you'd listened to me," I chimed in.

Thalia swung a fist at me. I was so surprised, I didn't even have time to move out of the way. The punch hit me square in the chest. I was fine, but I heard the nasty cracks in Thalia's right hand. Half an hour later we were leaving the nurse's office with her hand wrapped in bandages.

"And you say I'm the careless one," I scoffed through a wide yawn.

"Shut up," she said angrily.

The rest of the school day seemed normal enough. That was until after school. I was napping in the nurse's office, waiting for Paul to get done with work so we could go home. Thalia had already left for Mount Olympus.

I had only been asleep for half an hour, when I was woken up. It was, surprisingly, Annabeth. "Hey," I muttered, moving to kiss her. She backed up a bit. I frowned. "What's up?"

"There's a fight going on outside," she said. "I looks like the basketball team is trying to beat up some kid. And Percy, some of them are laistrygonian giants."

I cursed. I remembered them hiding to attack me during a dodge ball game back in seventh grade. Not a fun year for me. Then earlier this year they had fought against Butch and I. I didn't like fighting them. I bolted outside, Annabeth right on my heels. Sure enough, she was right. The laistrygonians looked like slightly overlarge kids in their disguised form, but I knew they could grow bigger and badder.

And sure enough, as I had expected, Derek was in the center of the wide circle of opponents. Annabeth and I dashed to his side. I looked at him. "Want help yet?" He grimaced. He didn't say anything, but nodded, almost imperceptibly. I smirked. "Good to know. Alright beefheads, anyone who wants my friend Derek here, has to go through me first."

I probably didn't look like much of a challenge. You could tell just by looking at me that I was in terrible shape. My eyes were sunken in with gigantic bags. My hair was nearly shoulder length. My skin was a grayish color. Apparently the mortals in the group agreed with me on that count. They all ran at me at just about the same time. Luckily I was invulnerable. Several broken hands and unconscious bullies later, all that were left were four overlarge kids. Laistrygonians.

"Give up," one said.

I drew Riptide. Derek stared at it in shock. "That's – that's a -"

"Sword?" I suggested. "Yeah, I know. Explanations will have to wait till later. Right now you have to – DUCK!"

Huge chunks of rock had been thrown at us by the giants. Annabeth pulled on here baseball cap. "Keep them distracted," she said, invisibly. I nodded.

I charged at the giants, yelling. They all hefted rocks again, preparing to throw. Before they could, I had already beaten one, and Annabeth had started on the others. After all four were piles of sand, Annabeth reappeared.

"Good job," I said kissing her.

"Thanks," she said. "Not to bad for a zombie," she added.

Derek spoke up. "What the HELL is going on here!"

"We'll explain on the way," I said, almost automatically.

-CoE-

Jason arrived at the ruins of Mount Othrys, a magical backpack containing the insanely large and heavy skin of the Trojan sea monster. His blond hair was gray in places from soot, and he bore several scratches and bruises from his latest quest.

"Hello? Anyone here?" he called. "I have the skin. Now will you tell me what I need to know?"

Out of the shadows emerged a red haired girl with unnatural purple eyes. Jason knew her. She was Andromeda, daughter of Trivia. Jason knew her. She was the one who had sent him on this quest. "I'm glad you made it Jason. I have some terrible news, but I had to make sure you were strong enough, so I had you bring back the skin of the Trojan sea monster as proof you could handle it. Follow me."

Jason complied, but his nerves prickled. Something was going on. He pulled his coin from his pocket and fingered it nervously. He was led to the center of the ruined palace. He remembered fighting his way down these halls, destroying hordes of snake women. Was it only just this past summer that the war with the titans was brought to an end? Time really flew. He remembered getting ready for combat. He remembered every detail of his fight with the titan Krios. He remembered afterward his father's message to the entire camp that the gods had defeated Typhon and how he had slain Kronos with his own scythe yet again. But this time the halls of the palace were different. They were empty, but foreboding.

Finally the two reached the center. But where Atlas should've been holding the sky, there was a boy, about Jason's age, holding it. He had black hair an sea green eyes. Jason's eye's widened in surprise.

Andromeda spoke. "It's tragic, what happened to this boy. His name is Percy. He was tricked by Atlas into holding the sky. Jupiter searches for Atlas as we speak, but Percy can't hold on much longer. You've got to save him. Share the load with him. Let him take a brake. You two can switch off until Jupiter finds Atlas. I don't think it will take long at all. Please, if you don't, Percy will die."

Jason looked at the Percy boy sadly. "Hold this," he said, giving his bag to Andromeda. With a determined look on his face he strode forward, and seized the sky. "Alright listen, Percy, you take a break, when it looks like I'm about to die we'll switch, okay?"

Percy nodded, to weak to speak.

Jason took the sky's full weight. At first it didn't seem so bad, then it hit him like a literal ton of bricks.

Jason heard laughing. Andromeda and Percy were laughing. But as he watched, Percy's voice got deeper, he grew taller, more muscular, until, instead of the Percy boy, Atlas stood before him.

"What?" Jason groaned. "It was a trick!"

"And you fell for it," said a new voice. A man covered with stars came out. "My dear Jason, you don't look so good."

"Krios," Jason scowled. "When I get free, I will tear you limb from limb again! We're close to camp. If I don't return, they'll look for me."

"Which is why you'll be returning," Andromeda said. As he watched, she morphed into him. When she next spoke it was with his voice. "I do a mean son of Jupiter impersonation."

**AN: And that ends this chapter and my long hiatus. I hope you enjoy it. Oh, and for those of you who don't know, Trivia is Hecate's Roman equivalent.**


	13. Erow

**AN: Well, not especially quick, but here nonetheless. In other news, yesterday I got a 5:55 on my 1600 meter race yesterday. Not the best I've ever done, but a good start to the season. Okay, I'll be done bragging now. Now, on to the chapter.**

**Special thanks to ppppiiiiiiiieeeeeee for this chapter's character. Since I forgot to make a stipulation against children of Artemis and Hera, today's character will be slightly altered to make it more canonical. I apologize ppppiiiiiiiieeeeeee.**

**Warning: There is a change of narrator for this chapter only. As such, there is a higher level of swearing than when Percy is narrator.**

Erow

Hi, it's Thalia. I was the only one of the two of us at school the next day. Percy had stayed at camp the previous night and was taking a day off. That's not to say I didn't have help. I just didn't want the help I had. Chiron had sent Drew to help me for the day, the new head of the Aphrodite Cabin. I told him I'd rather not, but he persisted, I needed help. Drew wasn't going to be any help at all! Thanks a lot horse ass...

* * *

I walked into school, Drew following close behind. The mist had been manipulated to make the mortals think that Drew was a student from another school, thinking of transferring, so, therefore, was getting a tour of the school from me. Now, I was already tired and snappy, but she just set me over the edge. All it was as we walked down the hall was, that boy is hot, or is my makeup okay, or this is really a drag being paired with one of the _hunters_.

I used gym as an opportunity to kick her ass, but right afterword she went back to complaining. I wanted to kill her. I was just about to start throttling her when a voice behind me said, "Control your temper Thalia."

I turned, and, standing there was Artemis. "My lady! I didn't know you'd be here!Forgive me! What do you want, ma'am?"

"I have a matter of special interest for you my lieutenant," Artemis said. "On your list you have an Erow Archer. Rescue her today and take her to camp. She'll be lodging in my cabin."

"Okay, but why milady?"

"Erow is my daughter," Artemis said. Upon seeing the look on my face she quickly added, "Adopted! She's my adopted daughter. Her real father is an ass, so I stole her from him as a baby to try and make her in my image. She was sent to live with some mortals during the war and I told her to stay secret and safe. I've been too busy recently to come and get her myself, so I want you to take her to camp."

"So she already knows everything about the gods and monsters and so forth?"

"Yes," Artemis answered. "But she's still trying to understand it all. You'll have to help her. She won't be able to fight by herself yet."

Drew took that moment to stop reapplying her makeup to say, "Eeeewwwwww, you're _Artemis_?"

Artemis looked like she was going to fry Drew right then and there. "Control your temper madam!" I said, holding on to her. She looked like she was about to reveal her true form, and that did not need to happen.

She breathed out hard through her nose. "Get going you two. Help Erow." Artemis was gone.

I punched Drew in the shoulder. "_Never_ speak to her that way again, you Aphrodite _slut_!"

She decked me. Now, granted, she was too weak for that to really do much damage to me, but it stunned me. And soon we were both sent to the principal's office. We sat waiting just outside the door of Echidna's office.

"Well, _now_ you've done it," I snapped.

"_Me?_ Honey, I think it was you."

"_Honey? _Honey!" Outside you could see the sky turning gray. Lightning streaked across it, striking down in the parking lot. I didn't care that my anger was out of control. Yesterday I had broken my hand. Thanks to some nectar, it was better, but _now_ I had to deal with shit from this girl? "Listen, _Drew_, Chiron sent you to assist me. So stop acting like such a bitch! Now we've got to deal with Echidna and probably Helen too."

"Oh please, I'm a skilled charmspeaker honey," Drew said.

My interest was piqued. The storm outside quieted itself a little. "Charmspeaker?"

She rolled her eyes. "Of course you wouldn't know _hunter_. Charmspeakers are people who are proficient at the art of charmspeak. Charmspeak is controlling others using your voice."

Something caught my attention in that sentence. Helen. _She_ could charmspeak! That's how she controlled the mortals. "But it doesn't work on demigods or monsters or gods does it?"

"Of course it does Honey. You just have to be good enough."

"So," I said, "Helen must not be very good yet, because she can only control mortals..."

At that moment a girl, a bit younger than me, walked in. She had strangely colored silver hair. Around her neck hung a crescent moon pendant. She sat in the chair next to me. "What are you here for?" the girl asked.

I was taken aback but I answered her question. "For beating up this bitch here named Drew. My name is Thalia, by the way, who are you?"

Drew looked ready to punch me again, but I shot her a stormy look. She kept her anger at bay. I turned back to the girl. She was wearing very plain clothes. But her boots... they were hiking boots. And they were muddy like she'd recently gone hiking. Could this be Artemis's daughter of sorts, Erow?

"Erow," She answered, confirming my suspicions.

I was about to explain why I was here, but just then Helen appeared. She looked angry, but not at us. At something else. She was talking on a cell phone. "What do you mean you've already... But I... Andromeda!... Yes!... You don't think I'm not trying?... No you're not better... It's HECATE, not _Trivia_... Well guess what, you'll fail in the end... I will!... This conversation is over!" Helen hung up.

"You three. Two demigods and Artemis's adopted girl. Mrs. E will see you now. I have to go figure something out." She left in a storm. Erow turned towards us.

"You two are demigods?"

I nodded. "Your mother sent us to get you out of here. The war is over. It's time for you to go to camp and wait to join with the hunters."

"Come in!" Echidna barked.

Reluctantly we all stood and walked in. Echidna sat behind her desk. Her scaly arms were revealed, her razor sharp claws pressed together. "I'm tired of hearing the trouble you've been causing Miss Grace."

"Can you prove anything?" I asked.

"Not until today. But you and that girl fighting gives me something I can nail you on." She ripped a gash across my cheek. I winced in pain. Erow stood and pulled back a fist. Echidna caught the blow easily. "And you, Miss Archer. You've already made quite a blow on my monster faculty and staff. At the beginning of the school year I said that I'd be hiring more teachers. But you've already killed them all. I had to attribute it to the economic downturn. You know how hard that is when you run a private school! But yet with you, I couldn't prove anything until you were caught today trying to break into the kitchen. Now I can punish you all properly!"

She leaped across the table trying to slice us to ribbons. Drew sat there terrified. I activated my spear. Erow pulled a hunting knife from her boot. We each blocked one of Echidna's hands. She pushed hard. She was stronger than I expected. The two of us were slammed against the wall.

"You could help!" I yelled at Drew. She opened the window and ran.

"Bitch!" I yelled after her. Erow and I pushed her claw back, but they were back and rapidly slicing. We each did our best to defend ourselves. Despite this we both got scratched up very badly. I circled behind Echidna. I tried jabbing her in the back. She blocked with a claw. I leaped backwards onto her desk. I picked up items and threw them at Echidna. She swatted them all down. Erow stabbed her in the back. It was apparently celestial Bronze, because Echidna cried out in pain.

This was our chance. "Bolt!" I yelled.

Erow and I jumped out the open window and ran for it.

* * *

Jason could hardly breath under the weight of the sky. He didn't need any distractions, so of course Andromeda took the opportunity to come and gloat. She still looked and sounded like him, but Jason knew she wasn't.

"Well, Jason," she said. "I have them all fooled. They think I am you. I'll admit, the training program is pretty intense, but taking on your form gave me your strength, so I'm able to complete the workouts. And I will admit, it was a little weird being flirted on by girls, but the more I get used to it, the easier it becomes. Pretty soon, I'll be able to lead your troops to their death."

**AN: Short, but a necessary chapter. I hope you liked it.**


	14. Vanessa

**AN: Hello again. I'm back. Sorry about the delay, I've had track practice and my school's Pops concert is coming up fast, meaning I'm practicing my music fairly regularly. A bit of a change in storyline for the overall series has taken place. Instead of trying to maintain this story in the same timeline Rick Riordan set up, I'm going to make this an alternate timeline, for several reasons, the most important being that I was wrong, Percy does disappear in the December directly following Kronos's defeat. As such I wouldn't have enough time for the entire series and The Lost Hero to both happen, so there's going to be a change of pace. Don't worry, all TLH main characters will be incorporated in this series at some point, with the exception of a few villains. Somehow I'll also find a way for the New Great Prophecy to fit in, though how I don't know yet.**

**Now, there are only three submitted demigods remaining to be used, after which the final bit of the story will be completed. Hope you enjoy.**

**Today I thank **parisholdsthekeytoyourheart **for the character.**

Vanessa

It was finally Friday. Thank the gods. Even after being forced to take yesterday off by Annabeth and Chiron, I was still way out of it. Of course today, Thalia had gotten the day off. It was only fair I had been told. And I agreed. What I did not agree with was my partner for the day. Clarisse. Why her? Why did Chiron have to pair me up with her? I wanted to be paired with Annabeth,but she had school of her own. My next suggestion was Nico, but he was in the Underworld. Grover was traveling, Travis and Connor were busy with something or other, the entire Hephaestus cabin was dealing with an out of control bronze dragon, I didn't know the new campers all that well, Annabeth's second in command, Malcolm, was drawing up plans for a new cabin, Tyson was underwater, and last of all, Rachel was still at school. That and she didn't really fight anyway. Especially since she was the oracle and all. So, as my only option I got paired with Clarisse.

"So Jackson, where next are we going on this tour?" she asked, hating this as much as I did. The mist had been manipulated to make people think she was a potential transfer student and I was giving her a tour.

"I don't know. What do you want to see?"

The weight room? Not as bad as it could've been I guess. Except she completely humiliated me at bench press, military press, deadlifts, squats, bicep curls, tricep kickbacks, and all the others that I didn't know the name of. There was another girl in there too. She was shy, but was lifting similar amounts as Clarisse.She wore jeans and a hoodie, under which I figured was a t-shirt. She had strait, shoulder length, dark brown hair and large brown eyes. She was actually rather short, so seeing her lift amounts near what Clarisse was lifting caught my attention.

"Clarisse," I said after we finished in the weight room. "Did you catch that girl's name?"

Clarisse shook her head. "She was acting too shy. Why do you care?"

I rolled my eyes. "She can almost lift as much as you! I think she might be your sister."

"What? No way Jackson would I be related to someone as shy and meek as that girl. Children of Ares are tough, not wimps like her. Or for that matter, you."

I rolled my eyes. "We need to tail her, find out if we can find out her name. Once we have that, then I can check my copy of the list of demigods. Hopefully I'm right."

"Alright Jackson, I'll make you a bet."

I threw a sideways glance at Clarisse. "I'm listening."

"I bet that she isn't a daughter of Ares. And I know you think she is. So, here's the deal, if I'm right you have to be the official servant of the Ares cabin for the whole summer, and if you win..."

"If I win _you_ have to carry around a cute, fluffy teddy bear for the entire summer," I said, smirking. If she wasn't serious about it, she wouldn't take this bet.

Clarisse thought about it. Finally, with an almost doubting look on her face, she said, "Deal."

We shook hands. "Alright, first things first Clarisse, it's lunch period, and I think we may find our girl in the cafeteria. If she isn't there, we'll eat, then search the school for her."

Clarisse liked this idea, so off we went, silently, to the cafeteria. After arriving we found the girl sitting near the back doors of the room. She was sitting alone, but at her table she had a teddy bear. I tugged at my collar nervously. "Okay, so maybe the Ares call was a bit early, why don't we call off the bet."

Clarisse smirked. "Oh no you don't Jackson. We'll find out her name right now actually."

I steeled my nerves. "Okay, I just feel bad that you'll be carrying around a bear like that all summer long."

We went over to the girl's table. "Hey," I said. "May we sit..." she stood up and left in a hurry. "Here," I finished. "Wow, she's really shy. Oh look she left her bear. Here you go Clarisse, hold on to it. You'll need it this summer."

She looked ready to punch me. I stood and ran after the girl. "Hey wait up!" I called when I saw her. "Why are you so shy?"

"I'm not shy!" she snapped. Well at least she was short-tempered, that was a good sign for me, right?

"Sorry," I said, holding up my hands. "I was just wondering. What's your name?"

"Vanessa Brass," She murmured. I already had the list out. There she was. Daughter of Ares. Yes! I was right! I didn't have to serve the Ares cabin this summer! And Clarisse had to carry around a teddy bear! Which reminded me...

"You left your teddy bear in the cafeteria," I told Vanessa.

"It's not mine," she snapped. I think she was telling the truth that time. "I found it on the ground and was going to take it to lost and found, I just wanted to hold onto it until after lunch. I... I have a soft spot for cute things." The last part she spoke into the ground. Weird for a child of Ares to like cute things, but that didn't matter now.

"Well, come with me, there's someone you need to meet."

"And who would that be?" asked another voice. I spun around. Helen.

"None of your business witch," I said. "Go and pull a rabbit out of a hat or something. I'm tired, and I really don't want to have to beat you up again."

"You needn't worry about that, because you can't keep winning. Besides, I'm not going to fight you this time. No, I want you to meet a _friend_ of mine, Andro – I mean, uh, Jason, yeah, that's his name." The way she said friend, made me think that she didn't really like this person. And what was their name? She had almost slipped and called this Jason kid something else, but what?

A blond haired boy emerged with a strange golden sword. "Hello Percy," he said. "I've heard a lot about you from Helen. Now, I think, I'm going to kill you."

"Not so fast blondie!" It was Clarisse. She had run up the hall behind me. "I may not like Jackson, but beating him to a pulp is reserved for children of Ares only!"

"What's going on?" Vanessa yelled.

Jason swung his sword at Clarisse who duck under it, then gave Jason a sharp upercut. My eyes darted around, looking for Helen. She was already gone. I cursed under my breath. "Stay down Vanessa."

I activated Riptide and joined in the fight. Clarisse was trying to play the dodge-and-strike game, but the Jason kid was fast. I entered the fray. I slashed and parried, but he was just too quick. He slammed my side with the flat of his blade, but it bounced off. He rubbed his arm with his free hand, being hurt by the invulnerabilty's power. Clarisse came in and punched him in the gut. He doubled over in pain. I slammed the back of his head with the butt of my sword. He stumbled, but came back up and tried to cut open Clarisse's midsection. I blocked with my own sword and elbowed him in the jaw. He swiped his foot out, knocking me to the floor, face first. He stabbed at my back, so I rolled away as quickly as I could. I came back up and met his next blow with one of my own. Clarisse punched him, knocking him forward, allowing me to slice at him. He moved to the side just in time, but I did manage to cut his arm pretty badly. He cried out in pain, but then laughed.

I stared confusedly. "Why are you laughing?"

Jason smiled cruelly at me. "Because now, you've injured me badly enough for this to be an affront to the others. Soon your pitiful camp will be destroyed."

"Wha-"

But there was a flash of light, and Jason was gone. "Damn," I said.

Clarisse and I walked over to Vanessa. "You okay," I asked.

She nodded. "Yeah. Thanks."

"I'm Percy, this is Clarisse. Clarisse, this is Vanessa Brass." I smirked. "Daughter of Ares."

Clarisse scowled. Vanessa looked confused. "Did you just say Ares?"

"It's a long story," I said. "And I'm not the best to explain it. Come with us and we'll introduce you to someone who can explain things a bit better."

-C-o-E-

Jason sat hunched, heaving breath after pitiful breath as he held the sky as nest he could. Andromeda had said she was going to meet someone who would be the key to starting a Demigod Civil War. What did that mean? How long was she going to be able to fool everyone? Hopefully not much longer. Jason felt like he would die if he was forced to stand the weight of the sky for too much longer. _Father, where are you?_ he wondered._ Juno, have you gone too?I need your help, one of you. Please._

A cow appeared wandering up the mountain. This struck Jason as odd, but he couldn't really contemplate it, he was too busy staying alive. But the cow walked right up next to him and lay down Jason frowned at it. Had it come to comfort him?


	15. Evan and Joey

**AN: I apologize for the long wait. Writers block coupled with upcoming finals have made it difficult to figure out what to write for this chapter. These characters then the exciting finale of installment number one of this series! Yay! So let's just cut to the chase, shall we?**

**I thank Evan-Almighty and Perzeus99 for this chapter's characters.**

Evan and Joey

Monday. The start of a new school week. And the start of what felt like the end to me. My dreams of Kronos had reached a climax last night. In the dream, _I _was Kronos and I was fighting myself and Annabeth. It was strange and incredibly disturbing. Why did I keep having these dreams?

Thalia seemed to sense the same thing I did. A sense of foreboding. A sense that something bad would happen soon. Not today, but soon. But what was it that we sensed coming? What was going to happen? I was on edge all day. Jittery, out of control. I just wanted to get the last fifteen demigods out of the school now, but I knew that couldn't happen, not with Helen and Echidna here. Speaking of which, who was that Jason kid, and where did he come from? And what had Helen almost called him? All strange questions. And why did he think that injuring him would cause the destruction of Camp?

I felt like I had a puzzle in front of me and I was missing just one or two essential pieces that would make it all fit together. But whatever those pieces were, I wasn't likely to figure it out today. So I sat, through class, after class, after class. Finally I'd had enough. I skipped fourth period and wandered around the school. I eventually found myself in the gym. They were playing hockey in gym class. The two teams were obviously poor matches. One was made entirely of jocks, the other entirely of non-athletic kids, except for one tall kid with brown hair. Yet the team that looked like it would easily lose, was winning. The tall kid managed to get every pass and score every shot he made at the goal.

The athletic kids were being massacred. It made absolutely no sense to me. How could one kid be so good at hockey? It made no sense. Unless...

I waited until the game was over and the class was told to go to the locker room. I intercepted the kid. He was tall alright. Taller than me, though he looked to only be a freshman. He had blue eyes and seemed friendly enough.

"Can I help you?" he asked.

"Yeah," I said. "What's your name kid, you're pretty good."

"I'm Evan Lanse," he answered, holding out his hand to shake. I took it.

"I'm Percy. So how do you do it? How did you single handedly carry your team to victory? Have you been playing hockey for years or what?"

He shook his head. "No, this was the first time I'd ever played it. I'm just a natural I guess. And, not to brag, but it seems to be that way with all types of competitions. I always win board games, video games, sports, raffles; you name it I've probably won it. I don't know why, I'm just really lucky."

"Interesting... well, nice meeting you Evan, and thanks!" I ran off before he could respond. As I ran I pulled out the list of demigods. There he was, Evan Lanse, one of two children of Nike, goddess of victory. The other's name was Joey, but I'd worry about him later.

I rounded a corner. I needed to find Thalia. Someone this valuable needed to be pulled out – today. Thalia had... Chemistry fourth period, but fourth would be over soon. I had to get down to the science hall before the bell rang or I might miss her. I rounded another corner, moving at high speed. I was in the Math hall, just one more corner...

The bell rang. I curse quietly, but kept moving, hopefully I'd catch her as she left the Chemistry room. I spotted her. "Thalia! Come over here."

She turned around, saw me, and came over. Yawning, she asked, "What's going on?"

I quickly explained about meeting Evan and why it would be really good to have a child of the goddess of victory at camp. Especially considering the threat that Jason had made on Friday. I still wasn't sure whether or not I should be worried about his threat, but being precautionary was always a good idea.

Thalia agreed that we needed to save Evan, and ASAP. "But what class could he be going to right now?" I asked. "We can't just search the school for him for the whole period. We wouldn't find him anyway."

Thalia rolled her eyes. "We just go down to the office and ask what class he's in right now."

"With Helen and Echidna in there? Yeah, that'll go well."

"I meant the guidance office."

"Oh," I said, feeling defeated. "Yeah, that'll be fine."

Turned out it wasn't so easy. Apparently it was against school policy to just give random students the schedule of another. Now we were stuck. We could just walk around looking for him, but that would take way to long. But if they wouldn't tell us where he was, we would have no other choice.

We decided to split up. I took the west half of the school, Thalia took the east. I sprinted down halls, peering into classrooms. No luck. I was beginning to get worried. Then I heard a loud crash from the next hall. I sprinted toward the source of the noise. I rounded the corner and nearly ran into...

"Nico! What in Hades are you doing here?" I asked.

The son of Hades smiled at me sheepishly. "Well I uh, wanted some advice. On how to deal with someone who annoys the hell out of you, but you have to deal with every day."

I rolled my eyes. "Can't this wait! I'm in the middle of a search for another demigod. He's the son of Nike."

"The goddess of victory," Nico mumbled. "I can see why you'd want to find him so badly. Tell you what, I'll help you find him, but I want your advice."

"Fine, whatever," I said. "Now come one, we have to search some more."

We continued searching. Nico suggested that we check the gym. I told him I'd been there earlier this morning, and that Evan wasn't likely to be there again, but Nico insisted we check. We visited the gym, and ran into a situation very similar to this morning. Two hockey teams, one looking like it had the obvious advantage that was losing. I looked, but I didn't see Evan. Instead I saw another kid. He looked almost exactly like Evan, but he had reddish hair.

After the period we intercepted him. "Hi," I said. "Who are you, and what do you know about a kid named Evan Lanse?"

He looked back and forth between Nico and I. "I'm Joey. Evan's in my grade, and I don't like him. He's always trying to show me up. I'm the only one he can't beat at everything, and he's the only one I can't beat. We don't get along. Who are you guys anyway? What are you doing here?"

"Come with us," Nico said. "We'll explain if you do."

"How about this. You tell me what's going on, and maybe I'll come with you," Joey retorted.

"This isn't up for negotiation," Nico snapped. "Come on!"

"You can't make me do anything," Joey said. "You're eight inches shorter than me and have half the muscle mass. If you try to make me do anything, I can just plow right through you."

Nico looked ready to explode. "Listen up kid, this could be of vital importance! If you don't come with us, you have no idea how bad your life will end up."

"Are you threatening me?"

"No," Nico said icily. "I'm informing you."

"Excuse us Joey," I interrupted. "I have to have a word with my friend here. Can you please wait a second? Nico, a word."

We turned around and I whispered fiercely at him, "What are you doing! Are you trying to antagonize him?"

"He's getting on my nerves! Why is he so cocky and arrogant. You said Evan was nice!"

I rolled my eyes. "Ever thought it might be possible for two children of Nike to have different personalities?"

"Children of Nike!" exclaimed Joey, who had apparently been eavesdropping on our conversation. "You mean the Greek goddess of victory, or the shoe?"

"Well, firstly," began Nico, "you shouldn't eavesdrop on a private conversation. And also, which seems more likely to have a child, a shoe, or a god?"

"Neither actually," said Joey. "Both sound farfetched."

Before Nico could argue further with Joey, I interrupted, "Look, you two can argue all day, but that won't solve anything. Joey, the Greek gods are real, and alive. If you don't come with us, you could very well find yourself dead soon. Killed by what mortals call Greek myths. Or you can come with us and get proper training. Evan is also like you: a child of a god. And the two of you both happen to be children of the goddess Nike. You may not get along, but you and Evan are half brothers. Now we need to find Evan so we can get the two of you to safety."

"That's a load of bullshit," Joey said.

Just then Thalia entered the room. "Found him," she said. "He was in English." Evan trailed behind her. He was no longer in his gym close, but wore a grey hoodie over a green t-shirt, blue jeans, and black nikes, which was funny since his mom was Nike."I told him everything. He's skeptical, but he believed my evidence."

Joey turned, glaring at Evan, "Evan."

Evan looked at Joey good naturedly. "Hi, Slice, how are you?"

"Don't call me that!"

Evan looked confused. "But why not? Isn't that what all your friends call you?"

Joey snapped, "Yes, but you're not my friend!"

Evan looked slightly hurt. "Oh, I thought we were."

"Well you thought wrong!"

"Guys," Thalia said. "Stop! We have company."

I turned. A man stepped forward. He had a large belly, curly black hair, a Hawaiian shirt, and gym shorts. "Mr. D?" Nico and I asked incredulously.

"Of course Pierre and Nate, who did you think I was? I came to inform you that I may be away from camp for a while. I have some things to look into. As such Chiron will be in charge until I return."

"But why are you telling us?" I asked. "You _never_ tell us ahead of time."

"Because, Johnson, I'm trying to be more accountable so that my father will shorten my punishment even further. Now stop asking stupid questions and get back to whatever it was that you were doing."

He started to glow. I yelled, "Close your eyes everyone!" and the jammed mine shut. My face was blasted with heat. After a moment I opened my eyes. Mr. D was gone.

"Whoa," Joey said. "Where the hell did that guy go?"

"He teleported away," I said. "Now are you going to come or not?"

"He isn't," said another voice. Helen emerged from the doorway.

"Is there any end to the visitations?" Nico asked.

Helen shrugged. "Well you won't find out son of Hades. Because you're about to go see your father. And stay with him."

She pulled out her sword and charged at Nico. I activated Riptide and blocked her. Thalia came in from behind with her spear. She tried to run Helen through, but Helen just disappeared in her poof of smoke and reappeared behind Thalia. She slashed at Thalia, but Thalia managed to duck just in time. She kicked at Helen's feet, but Helen jumped up and over Thalia. She ran into an undead soldier. A skeletal man stood in front of Helen. An arrow protruded from his ankle.

Nico spoke. "Helen, meet Achilles, the greatest warrior to ever live, and now the greates warrior of the dead."

Achilles pulled out a sword of his own and stabbed at Helen. She dodged, but met up with my fist. She stumbled backwards, strait into the arms of Thalia, who grabbed her and pushed her towards Achilles, whose sword stuck strait forwards. At the last second Helen disappeared, cursing.

"You two ready to come?" I asked Joey and Evan. They nodded mutely and followed us out of the gym. Achilles walked at the rear of our party, acting as a guard. Thalia and I stood at the front, with Nico just behind us. "So Nico," I asked, "why didn't you actually fight?"

"Two reasons," he said. "First of all, my sword is still being used as the prison of Thanatos. Second, I wasn't expecting to fight, so I didn't get anything out of the armory before I came here."

"Always bring a weapon," Thalia said. "First rule for a demigod. Why are you here anyway?"

"I came to ask for Percy's advice," he said. "So Percy, how do I deal with a person that annoys me, but I have to deal with?"

I glanced behind me, "Nico I don't know what to tell you. Either you don't get along with that person forever, or you ask them if they would be willing to work out the differences between the two of you and try to be friends with them."

"That's it? That's the advice I get? It sucks!"

"I never said it would be good advice!" I snapped. We stepped outside of the building. "Let's just get to camp."

-C-o-E-

That evening Helen and Echidna sat up late in Echidna's office.

"The potion is complete. All I need now is the location of Jackson's weak point for you to use in the incantation," Helen said. "I know that it's in the lower back, but I don't know for sure exactly where."

Echidna said, "Well can't we just say the lower back in the incantation?"

"It must be very specific," Helen said. "And we only have enough potion for one use. I just can't think of how we're going to find out for sure. I'm not sure if anyone but Jackson knows where his weak point is."

"Then we get Jackson to tell us."

"How?"

"We offer him an ultimatum." Echidna smiled, because a plan was formulating in her head. A plan to carry out her curse on the Jackson boy.

**AN: That's the end of this chapter. The next will be a numbered one and will be the climatic part.**


	16. Chapter 4: The Curse of Echidna

**AN: The epic finale begins. What is the ultimatum? What is this curse that Echidna referred to, and what will it do? You will learn all this and more in the exciting climatic chapter starting right now.**

**I would like to thank all the people who entered a demigod that was used in this story. To all those whose character didn't make it in, I apologize because you either entered too late or entered a child of the big three. But again, a special thanks to all entrants.**

**One last note. I would just like to remind everyone that this has become a sort of alternate timeline, so don't be surprised when I do some majorly uncanon things in this chapter.**

Chapter 4: The Curse of Echidna

I awoke the next morning, looking at my clock. It said 10:30. I was late for school. I thought I had set my alarm, but I guess I had forgotten. I dashed around my room, hurrying to get ready, but then I saw the note taped to my door. It was from my mom.

Percy,

There was a snow storm last night and school was canceled. Paul and I went Christmas shopping. Have a good day.

Love,

Mom

A snow storm? Well that made a little sense, it was late November, but what I didn't quite understand is that there hadn't been a storm predicted in the weather. In fact this fall had been pretty mild. I shrugged. I was already up, I might as well go see Annabeth. I finished getting dressed and went into the kitchen to get breakfast.

And there, sitting at my breakfast table was Helen. She glanced at me. "Good, you're up." I pulled out Riptide and sliced at her. It passed clean through. "My apologies," she said. "This is just a projection of me, it has no physical form. I just needed to deliver a message. You have probably figured out by now that school was canceled."

"Yeah, there was a snow storm," I said, looking around shiftily.

"There was no storm. I cast a spell on the entire city to make everyone think there was a storm. Have you even looked outside yet?"

I glanced out the window. It was a sunny day, not a hint of snow. "How? How'd you do it?"

"Jackson, I am the daughter of the goddess of magic. I simply cast a wide area spell. Sure it took a long time and a lot of energy, but I am the most powerful magician in the world, probably even more powerful than my own mother. I can do a simple spell like that."

"What message did you want to deliver."

"Nothing, except that the last thirteen demigods at Goode are being held captive there. It's not been a very good day for them." She chuckled at her joke, which I may add was actually _my_ joke. "Nor has it been a good day for your girlfriend Annabeth."

An icy feeling spread through me. "What have you done with Annabeth?" I asked, my voice trembling.

"Nothing, yet."

"What do you mean?"

"Easy, I'm giving you an ultimatum Jackson. Come to the school and tell me your Achilles point, or Echidna and I will kill her. You have until the end of the day Jackson. Do not disappoint me."

Her image disappeared. I ran to the door, ready to go the the school. When I flung it open, I nearly ran into Thalia. "Percy," she said. "Something's wrong. School's been closed for no reason."

I quickly explained the situation to her, then pushed past her.

"Percy, wait," she called. "Percy! You can't just go charging in there without a plan. The school is probably overrun with monsters. Annabeth wouldn't want to just charge in there without some kind of plan."

"Damn it Thalia! We'll never know what Annabeth would want if I don't get down there right now and save her!"

"You said that Helen said you had until the end of the day."

"They could be torturing her! She said they'd wait until the end of the day to kill her, she didn't say anything about hurting her."

"Listen to me Percy! You can't do this. We need help. Especially if you plan on actually telling them your weak point."

"I don't have a choice! I love her!"

The words surprised even me. There was a moment of stunned silence, standing there in the hall of my apartment complex. I knew the instant I said those words, they were true. Thalia spoke, in a more sympathetic tone, "And she loves you. She told me, she's just been too nervous to tell you, she was afraid you didn't feel the same way. But you can't just go in there, especially if you love her. She would want you to be smart. Now come back into your apartment, and we'll think of something."

Miserably I did what Thalia said. She sat me down on the couch. Then she went and got a bowl filled with milk and cereal and set it in front of me. "You need to eat. Where's your phone? We need to call in help."

I pointed wordlessly to the hall where the wireless phone lay. Thalia went and got it. I took one bite of my cereal, then went and dumped the rest in the sink. I was too upset and stressed to eat. I went back into the living room, just as Thalia reentered.

"Chiron is going to meet us at the school in half an hour," she said. "I explained the situation. He's bringing help."

"I don't need help," I said.

"Yes you do. You're having help. I already told you that I think that the school is overrun by monsters, so I'm not taking any chances. And neither are you. The school is about a half hour away if we walk, now let's go."

So we left. On the way I had time to think. I suppose it was only a matter of time before this happened. Helen had decided to stop playing her games. She knew Thalia and I were close to finishing saving the demigods. She decided to take what was left of them captive. And, in the process, she was going to finish the job of discovering my weak point. I still didn't think she intended to kill me, my life had been promised to someone else. But then why did she want to know where my weak point was? Did she want to know so she could tell this other person?

We arrived at the school just as one of the vans from camp Half Blood arrived. Argus nodded to me from the driver's seat. Then the doors opened and out poured a bunch of demigods. How they had all fit in there, I didn't know.

First came Butch, buff as ever, but now with an added rainbow tattoo, probably in tribute to his mom. He wore a camp shirt and on his back was strapped a bronze battle ax. Next came Nico. He wore light black leather armor with skeletons emblazoned on the chest piece. Around his shoulder hung a chain of gun ammo, and in his hands was a shotgun. "Percy, check out my replacement weapon! Nice, eh? Shoots bronze bullets."

I nodded to him, and attempted to smile at him. Next came Malcolm, his blond hair ruffled. At his side hung a sword. He too wore black leather armor, though it was plain and had no design on it. From behind him came the twins, Ben and Josiah. Their curly blond hair was slightly darker than before, and for once they weren't arguing. Ben wore jeans and his orange camp t-shirt, but Josiah was dressed like he was going to a club or something. He even wore sunglasses and a fedora. Both had swords with them.

Clyde came next. His strait blond hair was done in a fohawk. A bow and quiver hung at his side. He too wore an orange camp shirt and jeans. He scowled at Josiah. "I can't believe you stole my sunglasses."

"I didn't steal them," Josiah said. "You made a bet against me and you lost." He turned to me, "Some kids don't know how to take a loss."

Behind Clyde emerged Bonnie. She was looking like she did when I met her, pretty, with long brown hair and green eyes. She held a sword and was facing behind her talking with someone. That someone she was talking to was Callidora. Callidora's long auburn hair was pulled back into a ponytail. She held a comb and a hand mirror. As I watched the comb turned into a sword and the mirror into a shield. Both wore their camp shirts.

From behind them came a girl I didn't recognize. She had chocolate brown hair and eyes like my mom's; like they couldn't decide what color to be. She too was very pretty, but seemed to be trying to hide it with choppy hair. She wore faded jeans, a snowboarding jacket, and hiking boots. She held a reflective knife. Behind her came a boy that I didn't recognize. He was slim with curly black hair, brown eyes, a mischievous grin, and pointy ears. He wore a plain green t-shirt, jeans, and a tool belt.

"Hi," he said. He had a little bit of a Mexican accent. "I'm Leo, son of Hephaestus, and this is Piper, daughter of Aphrodite."

I nodded to them. Next came Charlotte. Her brown hair was perfectly strait as normal. She was dressed in a plain white t-shirt and jeans. The hair clip that we had given her lay flat in the palm of her hand, then expanded into her sword. After her was Derek. His highlights in his dyed hair were blue now, and his eyes were no longer that unnatural red color, but the grey that marked a child of Athena. He still wore a black hoodie, but the sleeves were there this time. His blue jeans were torn a little and his black shoes looked on the old side. He held a sword, but he actually smiled at me. He seemed to be feeling a little better. I noticed he was wearing the same watch as before.

After him came Evan and Joey. Evan wore the same clothes as the day before, while Joey was dressed in an orange camp t-shirt and jeans. They had apparently bonded overnight, because they emerged arm in arm like brothers. Joey held a three pointer, whilst Evan twisted a ring with a crown on it and it turned into a sword. Following them was Shifa. She held a quarterstaff.

"I'm only here as a medic," she told me. Her wavy black hair was in a loose knot.

Raye Lynn and Zaria came next. Raye wore a neon yellow shirt and skinny jeans. The animal rubber bands were still around her arms. She threw her keyring in the air and it turned into a bow and quiver. Zaria wore an orange camp shirt. She had a dark hoodie tied around her waist and wore plain jeans. In her hand was a knife.

Vanessa emerged next. She pulled off a leather bracelet, and it turned into a whip. A set of bronze knuckles turned into a shield. Her brown hair was messy, like she had just woken up. She wore a t-shirt I didn't recognize, and smiled at me. Clarisse came after her. She was dressed in black leather armor like Nico and Malcolm. On hers a boar's head was emblazoned. She held her electrified spear.

Next came the daughter of Hephaestus, Alex. She wore the same black t-shirt with the anvil on it as the time I met her. Her fiery orange hair was in a high ponytail. In her hand was a bronze anvil. Daniela came after her. She still wore her necklace with the blue stones. Her long black hair was in a high ponytail as well. Her jeans and combat boots were the same as when I met her, but she wore a camp shirt now. She held a sword.

Erow emerged with a bow and a quiver full of red arrows. At her ankles barked a mechanical hunting dog. She wore the silvery camo of a hunter, a silver crescent moon pendant hung from her neck. Her strangely silver hair seemed almost to glow. She pulled out Thalia's silver tiara and handed it too her. "Here you are Thalia. Artemis sent it to camp for me to give you. I'm going to join the hunters as well, as soon as this mission is over."

"Thank you Erow," Thalia said.

Connor and Travis pulled up the rear, helping Chiron in wheelchair form out of the van. Connor and Travis wore black leather armor too, with a winged shoe emblazoned on the front of each. Chiron looked grim. He handed me a shield and black leather armor of my own, with a green trident on the front. Then He gave Thalia a set of her own black leather armor, hers with a blue bolt of lightning crossing a crescent moon.

"The black leather armor marks the battlefield commanders," he explained when he caught my questioning look. "I brought you a shield as well, just in case you need it." He turned toward the others. "Now listen, I know many of you don't know Percy very well, but I ask you to trust him. He is a wise leader and will lead you all well. Those in the black leather armor can tell you that. I didn't want any of you newer campers coming, but since you insisted, I only ask that you stay safe and do what Percy tells you." He turned back to me. "Percy. Don't do anything rash. For your sake and for Annabeth's."

"That's what everyone keeps telling me," I snapped. "I'll be fine. And I'm going to make sure that Annabeth is fine."

Chiron looked at me sadly. "Do what your heart tells you, but please, don't get yourself killed. I've seen too many heroes die to this very trap." He turned back to the others. "The rest of you, get on your armor." Argus emerged with several bags. Upon inspection it was found that they contained brown leather armor. Commanders in black, soldiers in brown.

"I don't know Chiron," said Josiah as he examined the breast piece of one of the armor sets. "This doesn't really go with the sunglasses and hat."

"Oh please," said Ben. "You're so full of yourself."

"Because I'm awesome," Josiah retorted.

I caught snippets of other conversations too. Conversations that seemed irrelevant and unhelpful.

"Do these come in any larger sizes?" Butch asked.

"Why couldn't we get the black?" Derek questioned.

"Too bad these don't come in bright primary colors," Raye said to Zaria.

I was getting pissed by these conversations. These would not help me save Annabeth. Finally I'd had enough. "Shut up!" I yelled. "Stop complaining about it and just put the goddam armor on!"

They all did as I said. I sighed in relief. Chiron turned to me. "Good luck Percy. May the gods be with you."

"Chiron, can't you stay?" Thalia asked.

The others looked around nervously like they knew something we didn't. Chiron turned to us uncomfortably. "Unfortunately, no child. There are other pressing issues at camp to deal with. I didn't want to burden you with the information, but other demigods have declared war on Camp Half Blood. I must try to sort this out before we get a repeat of what happened in the 1860s."

"1860s?" I asked. "What happened then?"

"Now is not the time for me to burden you with that knowledge. You must focus on the mission at hand. Now, I must leave you."

With the help of Connor and Travis, Chiron was loaded back into the van. Argus peeled off.

I tried not to think about what Chiron had said as I turned to my small army of demigods. Most of them had attended Goode. Now they were back, ready to save their school, their thirteen classmates who were also demigods, and the girlfriend of the guy who had led them to camp. Some looked scared. Others looked determined. Still others (Josiah) looked cocky. They were as ready as they ever would be. I cleared my throat.

"Listen up," I croaked. "Today is the end of all the terrible things happening at Goode. Today we free friends, acquaintances, possibly even some old school rivals of yours. Whatever the case, we fight for their freedom, and for the end of Echidna's reign over this school. Usually I would say 'For Olympus', but that doesn't really seem appropriate today. So instead, I offer a different battle cry. A yell to what we are really fighting for today. For Goode!"

"For Goode!" everyone else echoed. And with that we made our charge to the doors.

-C-o-E-

The atrium was dark and empty. And quiet. Very quiet. If it were a movie someone would have probably said too quiet. This thinking did not help my mood. I pulled out Riptide and tightened the straps on the shield Chiron had given me. My comrades were behind me, silently awaiting orders. I realized that I didn't really want to lead the mission. I just wanted to save Annabeth and get out. It didn't matter how falsely inspirational my speech had been, I didn't really care about Goode.

"Right," I spoke into the gloom. "My first order of business as commander is to hand over power to Malcolm. Malcolm, I suggest you and your troops start looking for the missing demigods. Nico, Thalia, you're with me."

This order was met with some confusion, but Malcolm nodded, as if he understood. "Right, so we need to..."

Before he could finish there was a terrific howl and a small Hellhound lunged out of the darkness. I sliced it in half with Riptide. But this wasn't a good move apparently, as it signaled the entrance of the other monsters. Swarms of them emerged from other halls, rooms, some even dropped from the ceiling. Hellhounds, Dracaenae, Telekhines, Empousa, even a few Laistrygonians were all in attendance. It was so pleasant to see so many familiar faces. Not.

Malcolm had a look of shock on his face, but he quickly recovered and yelled, "Attack!"

It was chaos. We were fighting in extremely close quarters, and I could hardly keep track of where my friends were and where my enemies were. "Thalia, Nico!" I yelled. "Let's go!"

The sound of a shotgun going off to my right signaled Nico's response of, "We can't just leave them like this!"

I cursed, but I knew he was right. I looked around for something to use. Then I saw something. A water fountain. It alone wouldn't do what I had in mind, but it meant that there were pipes in the walls. I focused on the unseen water. Suddenly there was an eruption of water. I directed the water to clear a path to around behind the enemy. "Some of you follow me!"

I ran along my path to behind the monsters, several others in my wake. After we were behind the monsters, I dropped the wall of water and yelled, "Get 'em!"

My few troops attacked the monsters from the rear, completely surprising them. I saw the Leo kid pull a sledgehammer from his tool belt, Piper got in close and stabbed a monster with her knife, Erow shot arrows that changed direction to hit their intended target, Butch cleaved two monsters apart with one swing of his ax. Thalia and Nico stood next to me.

"Good job Percy," Thalia said. "I think they can handle this, want to go save your girlfriend?"

I nodded determinedly. "Yeah. Let's go."

We turned our backs on the battle and charged down the hall, checking each classroom along the way. Each turned over a new batch of monsters to defeat, but no Annabeth, and none of the thirteen last demigods.

After an hour we faced another problem. Malcolm had found the missing demigods minus Annabeth, and was defending them in the atrium, waiting for evacuation. Our troops were spread thin. No one knew where anyone else was. Sometimes Nico, Thalia, and I would find one or two against an entire hall of monsters. Joey and Evan did some pretty good team work and really cleaned up. Vanessa fought like a demon, like a true daughter of Ares. She was pretty handy with that whip. Shifa ran around finding people to heal, and only used her quarterstaff to defend herself. Derek aided Malcolm in defending the thirteen, without him Malcolm wouldn't have stood a chance. Erow and her mechanical dog ran around the school taking out the bulkier and stronger enemies. Callidora was surprisingly adept at battle for a child of Aphrodite. I guess they can be tough when they need to be. Speaking of which, Piper was almost as good at knife fighting as Annabeth. Leo and his sledgehammer weren't too shabby either. I'd have to get to know those two better. Raye, Zaria, and Daniela were always together, and always kicking butt. Alex clubbed people with her anvil. A tank, just like her siblings. Charlotte turned entire groups of monsters into wheat, then cut them in half with her sword. Butch was just as much a force to be reckoned with here as on the football field. Clarisse was kicking ass as usual. Ben and Josiah were an interesting combo, constantly defending each others backs while still arguing with the other. Bonnie and Clyde worked well together too, both being proficient at archery. And Connor and Travis, well let's just say that they had the toilet paper handled.

Despite all the good work happening, we were still hopelessly outnumbered, spread way to thin, and not even close to finding Annabeth. I was about ready to scream in dispair. Nico, Thalia, and I rounded the corner into the next hall. It was empty except for one figure. I sighed. "How many times do I have to kill you?" I yelled incredulously.

The minotaur grunted angrily in response.

"Whatever, pal," I said. "You and I both know how this is gonna go down. Just give up! I don't see why you keep trying. You can't kill me. It's not gonna happen."

It grunted again, then lowered it's head and charged. I rolled my eyes. At the last second I stepped aside and the Minotaur barreled past me. He stopped and glared at me. I noticed he wore full battle armor, and had his ax strapped to his back. He seemed to have just realized this too. He pulled his ax off of his back and swung it down towards my head. I sidestepped the blow as well. While his blade was stuck in the floor I took the opportunity to slice his ax in half. I hit him with the butt of my sword. He didn't stumble as much as a smaller monster or a person would, but he still stumbled. While he was stumbling I took the opportunity to pull the ax blade out of the floor and throw it at him. It spiraled through the air and imbedded itself between its beady eyes. He dissipated into monster dust.

"Percy four," I said. "Minotaur, zero."

Nico rolled his eyes. "You don't need to brag that you've defeated such a strong monster so many times."

"I'm not bragging," I protested. "I'm complaining. I'm tired of dealing with the guy. Now come on, we're not done yet."

I dashed ahead, silently cursing myself for getting distracted. Damn you ADHD for the score keeping thing. We had searched most of the school, and I still had no idea where Annabeth was. Where would they keep her? Somewhere where it would be nostalgically humiliating for me to be defeated. I skidded to a stop. "Idiot!" I yelled.

"Who's an idiot?" Thalia asked.

"Me," I said. "They want to end this the same place they started it. Come on, we have to get to the auditorium."

-C-o-E-

I slammed open the doors of the auditorium in rage. All the lights were off except for the stage lights. There, on stage, was Echidna. Her sleeves were rolled up, revealing her scaly reptilian skin. Her forked tounge was flicking rapidly, like she was agitated. On the floor next to her sat Chimera, in harmless chihuahua form.

"So, Jackson," Echidna said. "You brought an army. I sort of figured you would, so I brought my own."

I came down to the front, the area between the front row of seats and the stage. "Where's Annabeth!" I yelled.

"Cutting right to the chase," Echidna said, then chuckled. "Right to the Chase you might say. Helen!"

On the other side of the stage, Helen appeared. Next to her was Annabeth, She seemed to be dangling by invisble thread, and was bound by the same invisble thread. She looked, well there's no other word for it, awful. She didn't have any bruises or cuts or anything, but there was this aura of pain, of sickness about her. She seemed to be barely maintaining consciousness.

My face probably looked murderous. "What did you do to her!"

"Nothing time won't heal," Helen said.

Echidna turned to me. "You have two choices Jackson. Either tell me your weak point, and we let her go, or don't, and try to attack me, at which point Helen will leave with your girlfriend."

"Don't tell them Percy," Annabeth said weakly. She coughed, a fit of coughing that lasted to long to be just a mild cough. "Please. I can take care of myself."

I was fighting to hold back tears. "You promise to let her go?"

"I swear on the River Styx," Echidna said.

I looked at Helen. "And you?"

Reluctantly she made the same swear. Annabeth called, "Percy, no!" one last time. Then I said, "The weak point, it's the small of my back." Helen and Echidna smiled cruelly. "But I still don't understand," I continued. "Helen said that my life was promised to another by your master, so why are you so obsessed with finding my weak point?"

"This is why," Helen said, pulling a vial of dark purple liquid from her pocket. "This potion allows the speaker to use the Achilles reversal curse. It was made by my mother on the request of the dead Achilles. He wanted it to exist so that anyone who shared his curse, but wanted for it to end, could end their invulnerability. We discovered it, and decided to use it to our advantage, to forcibly remove your invulnerability. Unfortunately, the spoken words include the naming of your weak point, so we needed to know it. But now..."

She threw the vial to Echidna. She uncorked it, and swallowed the contents. Just before she started speaking, several things happened at once. Annabeth dropped to the floor, out cold, Helen disappeared, and Nico let out an almighty yell and shot Echidna.

Echidna stumbled backwards, immortal ichor spilling from a wound in her chest. Nico ran forward, pulling out a concealed knife, ready to finish the job. Unfortunately he didn't know Echidna had claws. Just like Wolverine, claws shot out of her hands, and she slashed an X in Nico's chest. Her claws cleaved right through the leather armor, and into Nico's body. He let out a cry of pain. Echidna backhanded him, sending him flying.

Thalia and I started forward, but Echidna said, "Chimera dear, hold them back."

The harmless looking chihuahua immediately became huge, with a lion's head, a goat's body, and a ten foot long snake for a tail. He breathed fire at us. I leaped in front of Thalia, and took the full blast of the flame. It didn't hurt. I yelled to Thalia over the roar of the flames, "Thalia, get Annabeth out of here!"

"But-"

"Just do it! I can beat these two."

Thalia agreed reluctantly and ran off.

Then I heard Echidna speaking over the sound of the flames, "Perseus Jackson! I hereby lay a curse upon you! No more shall you bear the mark of the greatest hero, Achilles! Your invulnerability I pull out by the small of you back!"

Only later did I realize that had been in Ancient Greek, because I had other things to worry about. As soon as she spoke the word, I felt the fire. Saying it hurt would be an understatement. I dropped my sword as the metal burned into my flesh. I felt patches of my hair burning off. I literally saw my hands on fire, and struggled to tug of my shield, which added to the burning. Then the fire shut off, and I collapsed to the floor in pain. I managed to maintain enough sense to roll around and put out the fires all over my body. Then, every inch of me hurting, I sat up. My sword and shield lay on the ground, still smoking. Looking higher I saw the monstrous Chimera still up on stage. Echidna stood next to it, stroking it's side.

"Good job son," she said. "Well, Jackson, now we can deliver you to Lord Krios, where you will be handed over to the one who wants to personally kill you."

But I got angry then. I stood, still in agony, and climbed up on the stage. Echidna and Chimera turned to face me. I stood near where Nico a had landed.

"You've come to hand yourself in," Echidna purred. "And here I thought you'd put up a fight."

In response, I picked up Nico's knife. It was made of Stygian iron. It felt all too foreign in my hand, but I held it up. Echidna laughed. She found it amusing that I would still fight them after everything. "Chimera, dear, incapacitate Jackson, will you?"

It lunged for me. I quickly threw Nico over my shoulder and jumped off the stage. I threw Nico behind some seats for protection, then turned back towards the monster. It stepped down off the stage. I walked in a slow circle around it. It blasted fire, but I dove aside. It was then I noticed it's snake tail working towards where I had thrown Nico. I dashed over, and, before it knew what was happening, sliced off the head of the snake.

The Chimera roared in pain and agony, and looked at me murderously. I ran to the other side of the auditorium, and it followed, knocking over entire rows of seats in the process. It caught up with me, and slammed me down with it's goat hooves. I felt my ribs cracking and cried out in pain.

I flipped the knife around in my hand and drove the blade into it's leg, down to the hilt. The monster wrenched back in agony. I didn't have enough time to let go of the knife, and felt my right arm get tugged with an almighty wrench, right out of it's socket. I yelled in pain again. But the roar of the beast in agony drowned me out. It looked at me with murderous eyes, and held me down again, cracking and breaking more ribs in the process. It opened it's mouth wide, ready to blast me with fire at point blank.

Time seemed to slow down. I grabbed the dagger with my left hand and pulled it free of it's leg. I quickly flipped it around and drove the thing into it's mouth, strait up through to it's brain.

Time sped back up. The monster gave one last roar, then burst apart in a shower of sand. Echidna looked shocked. "You... you killed him."

I felt something heavy on my chest. I looked down. It was the Chimera's giant dog collar. I pushed it aside with my good arm, but I was in too much pain to stand.

"You killed him!" Echidna repeated, this time as an angry yell.

She jumped down off the stage and ran at me, claws extending. Shakily I got to my feet to meet her, Nico's dagger held in a defensive position. Her strikes were vicious, with the intent to kill. Apparently she'd forgotten her orders to leave me alive, those orders erased from her memory in the rage she felt over the fact that I'd killed her son. Even monster mothers loved their kids I guess. I deflected a few, but many of her slashes got through, injuring me worse. She left a slash down the left side of my face, coming just short of destroying my eyes. She left scratches on my arms (which still hurt from being lit on fire) , my chest (which was already in a great deal of pain from the broken ribs), and just about everywhere else. I managed to get in a couple of quick strikes at her, one leaving a gash on her arm, but nothing major enough to stop her.

Soon I was on the floor. Echidna kicked me in the side. I yelled in pure pain. She kicked me again. "You think you're such a great hero, Jackson," she spat, kicking me. "Well you aren't. You're weak." Another kick. "And I'm going to kill you now!" She raised her claws, ready to strike the death blow.

Then, suddenly, a spear sprouted from her chest. Golden ichor spilled from the gaping hole in her chest like crazy. "Not today you aren't," came the familiar voice of Thalia.

Echidna screamed in anger, then started to glow. It occurred to me that Echidna wasn't truly a monster, but a god or Titan of some sort. I closed my eyes as I felt a huge explosion right above me. Echidna wasn't dead, but injured so badly she wouldn't be doing anything any time soon.

I opened my eyes to the blurry image of Thalia standing over me, saying, "Hang on Seaweed Brain. Annabeth would kill me if I let you die."

Then my pain finally overtook me, and the image faded to black.

**AN: And that's the end of the climax. I hope everyone enjoyed it. Only one more chapter where I tie up a few loose ends and set things up for book number two in the series.**


	17. Chapter 5

**AN: Hello, hello. So, some of you were surprised that I took away Percy's invulnerability, eh? Well good. Anyway, this is the final chapter. I will have a notice at the end concerning when the next installment in the series may be expected.**

Chapter 5

And of course, what better to accompany dying, then yet another dream. In my dream I was in a bed at the big house, the same bed I had lay in after my fight with the Minotaur. I tried to move my body, but I couldn't. My body seemed longer than it should've been. I glanced up and saw Chiron in wheelchair mode at the foot of my bed.

"Ah, you're awake," he said. His eyes were especially sad for some reason. "I'm surprised you made it here. Most demigods wouldn't have survived the long voyage back here with wounds like yours."

"Well that's just great, Chiron," I answered, in a voice that didn't belong to me. "But what about Jimmy and Marina, did they..."

My voice drowned out as Chiron shook his head. "They almost made it my dear boy, but they..." Chiron looked like he was choking up. He cleared his throat. "But you made it. That's what 's important."

"But it isn't!" I yelled. "Jimmy and Marina should've lived, I should have died! It should have been me, but it wasn't. I led that quest, me! The dragon should've taken me! Instead Jimmy and Marina..."

"You barely survived yourself," Chiron said. "In fact, it's thanks to Jimmy and Marina that you made it back safely. They gave their lives so you could live. Don't spoil their sacrifice by wishing it were reversed. Celebrate that you live, and that Jimmy and Marina are now in Elysium."

"Real comfort that is," I heard myself mutter.

"I am sorry for many things," Chiron said.

I looked around, unable to look at Chiron any longer. I couldn't even hear my own thoughts, but I knew that I was angry. I sighed. "I'm not mad at you Chiron, or myself anymore. I'm angry at my father."

Chiron's eyebrows ruffled. "Why?"

"It was his stupid quest that got Jimmy and Marina killed," I yelled. "All because he couldn't think of anything better than having me repeat the past!"

"Stealing the golden apple was done by Hercules," Chiron started.

"And there's no glory in repeating the same thing, especially if you fail and get your two partners killed in the process!" I looked around the room. For the first time, I noticed that all refective surfaces were gone. That was weird for the room. I felt my eyebrows ruffle in questioning.

"Listen my boy," Chiron said, "your father loves you and only wants the best for you."

I sighed, but kept looking for anything reflective. Finally I turned back to Chiron. "Chiron, what happened to the mirrors? There are usually a couple in here, but I just noticed that none of them are up right now. Why is that?"

Chiron sighed. "I wish there was an easier way to break this to you but..."

He held up a mirror. Staring back at me was a boy of about seventeen, with short cropped sandy blond hair, blue eyes, and the mischievous look of a son of Hermes. But there was a cut, still bright red, from just bellow his right eye, all the way down to his chin. Surprise covered the face, and a hand reached up and felt the spot.

"You will have a scar there forever," Chiron said. "I am sorry, Luke."

-C-o-E-

I awoke in a cold sweat. I was in the bed at the big house. I tried to sit up, and as I did a fire seemed to burn in my chest. I let out a groan of pain and lay back down. I tried to move my right arm, but I found it restrained, held against my chest by some kind of bound. I used my left arm to pull off the covers. I raised my head slightly to look down at my chest. My right arm was in a sling, and my chest was covered in bandages. Both of my arms were covered in angry red marks, my hands especially were a bright, raw red.

The door opened, and Chiron came into the room, confined to his wheelchair, because the ceiling was too low. "Hello, how are you feeling Percy?"

"Like I was chewed up and spat out by some huge monster," I said.

"That's good considering what you went through," Chiron said. "Most demigods wouldn't have survived injuries like yours. The skin was almost completely gone from burns on both your arms and legs, one of your ribs had punctured a lung, several cuts, a dislocated arm. You are lucky to still be with us."

"I wouldn't be if it weren't for Thalia," I said.

"She did very well," Chiron agreed.

"You said some of my wounds like they were in the past tense."

"They are," Chiron said. "We managed to regrow most of the skin on your arms and legs, though they're still raw. We got the rib that punctured your lung moved out of your lung, and fixed some of your ribs, though some are still cracked or broken. We got your arm back in its socket, but it needs to stay in a sling until the muscles and tendons and such all heal."

I nodded, like this answer satisfied me. My injuries must have been too bad for ambrosia and nectar to completely heal. Then I remembered all that had happened. Before I just had a vague notion of Thalia saving me. I felt my eyes widen. "Annabeth!" I cried. "Is she alright? Where is she?"

"Calm down," Chiron said. "Annabeth is... alive. She's pretty badly magically scared, but magical wounds heal with time."

I relaxed a little. "But where is she?"

"In the room directly above us, sleeping. We do not want to disturb her, sleep is what she needs most."

I laid my head back against my pillow. My neck was starting to get tired. "What about Nico, he looked pretty badly hurt."

Chiron nodded. "His chest was ripped up pretty badly. He's being seen to by Shifa and some of the healers from Apollo. I will go see to him too, shortly."

I looked back up at him. He seemed to be holding something in his lap, and was looking at my face sadly. "Chiron, what is it? What are you holding in your lap?"

Chiron sighed. "I wish there was an easier way to break this to you but..."

He held up a mirror, and I felt the most sickening sense of deja vu. I saw my face, but there was something new. A thick, red cut going from my left eye to my chin, an almost mirror image of the cut on the right side of Luke's face from my dream.

"You will have a scar there forever," Chiron said. "I am sorry, Percy."

I passed out.

-C-o-E-

When I woke back up, the room was different. I was in a larger room, with one bed on my left, and one on my right. To my left was Nico, sound asleep. The covers were pulled back, so I could see the bandages across his chest, making an X. I turned to my right and saw Annabeth. She was awake. Her blond hair was in disarray, and she looked at me sadly, like she wished she could get up, but couldn't. I guess she just noticed I was awake, but her eyes met my, and little sparks seemed to come alive in them. A faint smile traced her lips.

"Hey," she croaked.

"Hey," I answered. I tried to sit up. My chest was still in pain, but I forced myself to work through it and sit up. Then I stood shakily and walked over to Annabeth. I sat down on the edge of her bed and stroked her hair. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I was lit on fire," she said.

I smiled sadly. "Unfortunately I know how that feels."

She adjusted herself so that she could look me in the face. "I didn't want you to give up your invincibility for me. I – I was willing to let them take me away, I could've taken care of myself, but now..."

I held a finger to her lips. "I wasn't going to let that happen. Do you know why?"

"Because your fatal flaw is personal loyalty?"

I shook my head. "It's because I love you Annabeth Chase. Surely a Wise Girl like you should've spotted it."

Her eyes teared up. "You – you do?"

"More than anything," I said.

Now she was really crying. "And I love you Seaweed Brain." She pulled me into a kiss. My brain started going haywire like it always does when Annabeth and I kiss. After we pulled apart, Annabeth said, "That's why I was willing to go with Helen, so you wouldn't have to give up your invulnerability."

"Well I did," I said. "And in fact, it's kind of a relief. I don't have to worry about being instantly killed by even the slightest wound to the small of my back. Now that everywhere is equally vulnerable, I can relearn proper defense."

"Way to deal with your loss," a new voice said. Annabeth and I looked. It was Thalia. She was dressed in her Hunter clothes. "Just thought I'd tell you guys I'm taking off. I see Zombie Boy is still asleep. Well tell him that I wish him the best of luck with his... dilemma."

My eyebrows wrinkled. "Dilemma?"

"Yeah, he wasn't satisfied with the advice you gave him so I gave him some. He didn't really like mine either, but oh, well."

She came over to the bed. I moved a little so that she could reach Annabeth more easily. Thalia gave her a warm hug. "Take care of yourself." Then she added, "And take care of your Seaweed Brain too."

Annabeth laughed weakly. "I will."

Thalia then turned to me. "Well Seaweed Brain, looks like this is so long, for now."

"Yep," I said.

Thalia hugged me. For a moment I was surprised, but then I returned the hug. After we pulled apart she said, "You know, I'm still going to collect the favor for saving your life."

I smiled a little. "I expected as much."

Thalia laughed. She clapped my shoulder. "Take care guys."

And then she left.

"There she goes," said Annabeth. "Off to continue the hunt."

"Yeah," I said. "But we'll see her again. After all, she never stays away from her friends for too long."

-C-o-E-

Andromeda stood in the middle of the wolf house in the guise of Jason. Lupa stood in front of her. With a series of facial movements and snarls Lupa spoke. "I have received a message from my counterpart. They do not want war. And I would advise against it as well. Jupiter wouldn't want this."

'Jason' huffed. "The Jackson boy injured me." 'He' held up his arm, showing the bandage. "This was a disgrace. It can't go unpunished. He declared his intentions for war when he brutally assaulted me. Now he and his allies must pay the price for this act of war."

Lupa did the wolf equivalent of sighing. "I'm not going to interfere with your orders, but I warn you Jason, this will only be bad for us."

"Please, we'll win, and we'll reap the benefits." But on the inside, Andromeda was thinking, _I know, that's the point._

**AN: The end. I would like to once again thank all people who entered demigods, and I would also like to thank all favoriters, story/author alerters, reviewers, and just plain readers. You guys have made this story continue. I never dreamed that it would become as popular as it did, and I am very grateful.**

**Now, on to my second item on my agenda, I have three strait weeks of camp coming up, with only Saturdays off inbetween. After that I'll be out of town. I have a wedding to attend and a good friend to spend some time with. Hopefully I will at least start the second book before then, or during the inbetween Saturdays. But if I don't, I will be taking paper and writing utensils with me, so I can get at least some work on book two done.**

**Thanks again everyone for the continued support. Especially with the sporadic updating. I do apologize for that. So long everyone, at least until next time.**


	18. Teaser Trailer

**AN: Hello, hello. Well it isn't looking like I'll have chapter 1 of book 2 done before I go to camp, so I'll leave you with a little sneak preview. First I'll give you a summary of the story, which will be titled: Percy Jackson and the Stolen Spellbook.**

**Still recovering from the shock of losing his invulnerability, and receiving numerous painful injuries, Percy Jackson is – going on a road trip. But not just any road trip. One of Hecate's most prized spellbooks has been stolen, and the prime suspect is Helen. Now Percy, Annabeth, and Grover are reunited for another cross country adventure. Meanwhile, Nico discovers of a kidnapping in the Underworld, and his father gives him and two of his friends the important task of solving the mystery. As if this wasn't enough for our heroes, war has been declared by the Roman Camp. So far there have only been small, isolated battles around the country, but it won't be long before the war is full blown. Looks like things aren't going to be easy for anyone...**

**Also I'll give you a few additional tidbits of info.**

**-No, Percy will not get his invulnerability back in this. His vulnerability is a key plot point of the Stolen Spellbook. But do not completely despair, everything will eventually be set right.**

**-Thalia will play a very small role in this story.**

**-Both Nico's and Percy's storylines are of equal importance to the overall plot.**

**-Poseidon will appear briefly at the beginning.**

**-The story is set in the few days leading up to the winter solstice Council of the Gods.**

**-Jason's storyline will continue to be featured at the ends of some chapters.**

**-Nico's two friends are OCs from the Curse of Echidna.**

**That's all I feel like giving away, and I think it is quite a lot if you ask me. Finally, I'll give you the first paragraph of the story. It starts out much like the Lightning Thief does, with a warning from Percy to the readers.**

If you are here, and don't know my story, then you are in for a bumpy ride. I'm Percy Jackson. From appearance I'm just an average sixteen year old kid with black hair, green eyes. I'm not especially tall. Yeah, I'm a little tall, but not especially so. I don't look overly athletic, but I do look moderately so. Oh yeah, and I have a scar down the left side of my face, courtesy of my ex-principal. That's probably where things start to look not so normal. I have ADHD and dyslexia, my current school is the only school I've attended for more than a single year in my life, I know how to sword fight, and my girlfriend has a hat that can turn her invisible. And that's not even the weirdest part. I'm a demigod, a son of the Greek god of the sea, Poseidon. Unbelievable, I know. I didn't believe it when I was first told that the Greek gods are real. But they are, and if you feel something familiar as you read this, stop immediately. You could be a demigod too, and once you know that, it's all too easy for monsters like my ex-principal to find you, and kill you. I'm lucky. I lived. You may not be. So if you do feel something familiar as you read, be warned. You may be a demigod. And it is a bad time to be a demigod...

**So there you have it. I will put another notice up on this story when the next book comes out, so keep your eyes peeled.**


	19. Notice! The Sequel has been posted!

**Hello everyone. Just thought to let everyone who has this story "story alerted" or favorited that I just posted Percy Jackson and the Stolen Spellbook. It should be appearing sometime today so keep an eye out.**

**-MStormwriter**


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